Protests Escalate Against Chevron's Shale Gas Drill Plans in Romania
Romania’s first shale gas exploration bore has been delayed by protests in Pungești.
500 villagers from Silistea, a village in the Pungești commune, began to protest as equipment rolled in for layout works on the Chevron-owned land, which has recieved permits. Their protests are supported by activists from Barlad and by priests from Orthodox churches in the area.
The participants blocked the County road that passes through the village on Monday. Protests continued on Tuesday forming a human chain around equipment so as to block the plot of land. On Wednesday, first altercations with the gendarmerie took place.
“We are coming here to defend our land and we will not go home. We take turns to stay here and will not let Chevron poison us. We have stayed all night, we have slept on the ground or in wagons,” said a villager from Pungești on Tuesday.
On Monday, inhabitants of the area together with environmental activists from Iasi and Barlad requested the resignation of the government, Vaslui County Council and of the Mayor of Pungești and have lit campfires on the land where Chevron is to drill the bore.
“This is not acceptable, we will bring guns, axes and go in like that if there is no other way!” said an angry villager in a video recording by Barlad Online.
The topic of water contamination is present, even if the bore will not use the village’s water resource.
In order to ensure public order, the Vaslui County Gendarmerie Department sent, on the day the works began, over 70 gendarmes, including Quick Response Team members. The next day the number of gendarmes was increased to 200 on the third day of protests and today was the first day when altercations occurred when the villagers broke the perimeter guarded by the gendarmes.
“As long as the public order is disturbed, the gendarmes are obliged to intervene in order to reestablish the order. There are laws, and the gendarmes intervened according to Romanian laws. The protesters must understand that the law must be observed,” said Vaslui Prefect, Radu Renga.
The protests are now into their third day and villagers want to prevent equipment from entering Chevron land and ultimately stop the works.
Protester Daunt Romelcea said: “We were here all night and we do not intend to give up. We will not let Chevron bring their equipments on the land, even if we must stay in front of them. They must go to where they came from.”
According to the newspaper Vremea, what protesters have achieved thus far is a delay in bringing necessary equipment to the Chevron site. The company’s equipment was stopped on the way; one of the company’s officials had ordered the equipments to be stopped, including the crane, until “this situation is solved.”
Chevron’s position is expressed in a press release “Chevron will undertake only exploration activities with conventional technologies in block EV-2. Our priority is to conduct these activities in a safe and environmentally responsible manner consistent with the permits under which we operate.”
George Epurescu, from the association Romania Fara EI (Romania without THEM) said to Natural Gas Europe “The people of Vaslui are the local resistance and the most important part in this war against Chevron’s plague, supported by the President and the Prime Minister. This war must be won. It is the war of the entire country and, no matter how long it takes, we will be there, with them, in the front row.”
Gabriel Petrescu