Overview

• A team of Greenpeace climbers aboard the Arctic Sunrise scaled Shell’s Skiff platform roughly 45 nautical miles off Norfolk to unfurl the 12m by 8m canvas and spray about 1,000 litres of non-toxic red dye.
• Titled ‘Butchered’ and designed by Anish Kapoor, the piece marks the first fine-art installation on an active fossil-fuel platform to spotlight environmental and human harms from gas extraction.
• Shell condemned the incursion as illegal trespassing in a UK-designated safety zone and warned the action endangered people and operations on the rig.
• The protest dovetails with growing political momentum behind ‘polluter pays’ measures, prompting discussions on new levies, fines, or taxes to hold oil and gas companies financially accountable for climate damages.
• The installation could prompt enforcement under UK maritime safety laws and potential legal action by Shell, extending a pattern of sea-based protests that in 2023–24 yielded a multimillion-dollar settlement.