In recent years, BP has spent a lot of money trying to convince the world it had moved ‘Beyond Petroleum’. But having junked its solar energy programme, and been responsible for one of the largest oil spills in history, the only thing left that’s green about this huge multinational corporation is its famous logo. With its entrance into the Tar Sands, it’s safe to say that Beyond Petroleum has gone Back to Petroleum…
The Sunrise Project
BP has recently dived into its first big Tar Sands extraction venture. The Sunrise Project, a partnership with Husky Energy, will pump out a planet-destroying 3 billion barrels of oil, whilst polluting the local environment and creating serious health and safety concerns for local First Nations communities.
Despite opposition from environmental groups, First Nations communities, climate activists, pension groups and concerned UK citizens they have decided to go ahead with the Sunrise Project. However, no oil will be extracted until at least 2013, so there is still time to stop the project from going ahead.
The Sunrise Project is set to produce 200,000 barrels per day by 2014. Sunrise will use so-called SAG-D (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage), where water is superheated into steam with vast amounts of natural gas, then injected deep into the earth to melt” the oil from the sand and clay.
You can learn more about BP’s involvement in the Tar Sands by downloading our BP in the Tar Sands briefing.
BP is trying to distract attention from its dirty deeds by sponsoring the London 2012 Olympics. Find out more here.
Recent Action
- We co-ordinated an open letter to the Olympics organisers, raising a wide range of concerns about BP’s Olympic sponsorship.
- We have set up a tongue-in-cheek ‘BP London 2012 Greenwash’ Facebook page where you can get the latest news and views.
- We are working with PLATFORM, Liberate Tate, London Rising Tide and Art Not Oil to target BP for its ongoing sponsorship of the arts.
- We joined in Rev Billy’s Exorcism of BP from the Tate Modern and the ‘guerilla ballet’ BP White Swan.
- BP was one of the main targets of our 2011 Tar Sands Tour, where we caused a lot of excitement by turning up at their AGM.
