Greenpeace attempted blockade on palm oil vessel fails

Greenpeace attempted blockade on palm oil vessel fails A ship carrying palm oil from the Indonesian island of Sumatra managed to break through a Greenpeace blockade on Saturday, Reuters reported.
   The environmentalist group, in attempting the blockade of a key palm oil port, is protesting against forest destruction. The tanker it had been trying to block for three days managed to leave the port.
   'The group’s Rainbow Warrior ship dropped anchor next to the MT Westama in Dumai port in Sumatra island on Thursday in a bid to prevent the ship from leaving for India,' the report said. 'The owner of the tanker, which has a capacity of 33,000 tons of crude palm oil, said the ship had not been blocked, but Greenpeace said tugs had pushed the Rainbow Warrior aside.'
   “We were pushed by two big tugboats close to the MT Westama, at a distance of about 30 meters,' Greenpeace campaigner Bustar Maitar told Reuters. 'We tried to blockade the Westama for about an hour, but finally the ship escaped.'
   The shipping company in charge of the vessel, Jakarta-based Permata Hijau Sawit Group, said the delay of the vessel was due to tidal conditions and denied to the news agency that a protest was taking place.
   Reuters reported that the protest was timed to coincide with a meeting in Malaysia this week over sustainable supply of palm oil.