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OSLO: Some 200 climate activists including Greta Thunberg of Sweden blocked Norway’s largest oil refinery on Monday in a protest demanding an end to the country’s oil industry, organizers and police said.
Activists from Extinction Rebellion sat on the road, blocking the entrance to the Mongstad refinery in Bergen on Norway’s southwestern coast, while kayaks and sailboats obstructed the port’s entrance.
“We are here because it’s crystal clear that there is no future in oil. Fossil fuels lead to death and destruction,” Thunberg said in a statement, adding that oil producers like Norway “have blood on their hands.”
The burning of fossil fuels releases planet-heating carbon emissions.
Police said they were at the scene monitoring the situation from around 9:00 a.m. (0700 GMT).
The activists said they plan to continue with a string of protests in Norway throughout the week.
The Mongstad refinery is owned by Norwegian oil giant Equinor, which is majority-owned by the Norwegian state.
The activists demanded that Norwegian politicians present “a plan to phase out oil and gas.”
Norway, western Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer, is regularly criticized for its oil and gas production.
Oslo insists its industry provides jobs and develops know-how, and stresses the importance of guaranteeing stable energy deliveries to Europe.
Equinor has said it intends to keep its oil production in the country stable at 1.2 million barrels per day until 2035, and expects to produce 40 billion cubic meters (52 billion cubic yards) of gas a year by 2035.

TAIPEI: A Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and a former lawmaker who are wanted by the city’s authorities have been granted asylum in Great Britain and Australia, respectively.
Tony Chung, an activist who was imprisoned under Hong Kong’s sweeping national security law, and Ted Hui, a former lawmaker who was facing trial for his role in anti-government protests in 2019, both announced over the weekend that they have received asylum in the countries where they now live.
They are among dozens of activists on the run from Hong Kong authorities. Civil liberties in the city have been greatly eroded since Beijing in 2020 imposed a national security law essentially criminalizing dissent in the former British colony. Both Beijing and Hong Kong have hailed the security law as bringing stability to the financial hub.
Hui, who fled Hong Kong in December 2020, is part of a group of overseas activists who are targeted by police bounties of up to 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($127,800). The former lawmaker is now working as a lawyer in Adelaide.
He announced on Facebook on Saturday that he and his family have been granted protection visas.
“I express my sincere gratitude to the Government of Australia – both present and former – for recognizing our need for asylum and granting us this protection,” Hui wrote. “This decision reflects values of freedom, justice, and compassion that my family will never take for granted.”
While in Hong Kong, Hui had been an outspoken pro-democracy lawmaker. He was also known for disrupting a legislative session after he threw a rotten plant in the chamber to stop a debate of the national anthem bill – controversial legislation making it illegal to insult the Chinese national anthem. He was subsequently fined 52,000 Hong Kong dollars ($6,600) for the act.
Chung, who had advocated for Hong Kong’s independence, was sentenced to almost four years in prison for secession and money laundering in 2020. He was released on a supervision order, during which he traveled to Japan, from where he fled to Britain seeking asylum.
In a post on social media platform Threads on Sunday, he expressed his excitement at receiving refugee status in Britain along with a five-year resident permit. He said that despite his challenges over the past few years, including persistent mental health problems, he remains committed to his activism.
British and Australian authorities didn’t immediately comment on the activists’ statuses.
Hong Kong’s government did not comment directly on the cases but issued a statement on Saturday condemning “the harboring of criminals in any form by any country.”
“Any country that harbors Hong Kong criminals in any form shows contempt for the rule of law, grossly disrespects Hong Kong’s legal systems and barbarically interferes in the affairs of Hong Kong,” the statement read.