Chichester activist among Extinction Rebellion protesters who blockaded oil terminal serving petrol stations across the south of England

Four protesters locked themselves to oil barrels on Tuesday (June 1) and laid across the entrance to the facility in Hamble Lane, Hamble, preventing tanker lorries from accessing the site.

Other demonstrators dressed up as cleaning ladies to remove layers of green paint on the drums, which beared the slogans ‘Broken promises / Burning Planet’ and ‘Govt MER Strategy / Maximises emissions’.

Chichester programme manager Fay Pisani is one of the four activists who locked themselves onto drums outside the facility.

The 36-year-old said: "I’m taking action against the oil and gas industry today to highlight government greenwashing.

"This action might seem insignificant compared with scale of the problem and I know getting arrested seems extreme, but if enough people expose their greenwash and their lies it can have an impact. It has worked before."

James Hill, Extinction Rebellion south east spokesman, said: "The government continues to announce paper targets to reduce emissions but it is still business as usual for fossil fuel companies.

"There is new exploration, new 20-year production licences and new investment in fossil fuel infrastructure locking us into future greenhouse gas emissions at a time when the fossil fuel phase out should already be under way.

"The UK government’s policy is for Maximum Economic Recovery (MER) of oil and gas; this is incompatible with the urgent need for rapid transition away from fossil fuels to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees."

The protest was one of several being held by the group ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall.

Road tanker traffic in and out of the Hamble terminal was blocked by the demonstration, according to a spokesman from BP.

He said: "The terminal supplies fuel to service stations in the south of England that are operated by a wide variety of companies.

"Our priority is ensuring the safety of people and operations. BP supports the goals of Paris Agreement and our ambition is to be a net zero company by 2050 or sooner.

"To achieve this, our strategy will see us increase our spending on renewable energy ten-fold over this decade, to around five billion dollars a year, and also reduce our oil and gas production by 40 per cent.

"As examples of progress in this strategy, in the past six months we have entered offshore wind in both the US and the UK.

"And just this morning we announced a new agreement to buy a major pipeline of nine gigawatts of solar developments in the US.

"We already operate the UK’s most-used electric vehicle charging network, BP pulse, and plan to more than double our chargers in the country over the next decade, including at our retail sites."

Police officers are at the scene to ‘facilitate the protesters’ right to peaceful protest’ and to ‘minimise the impact on the local community and businesses’, according to a spokesman from Hampshire Constabulary.

The spokesman from the force said: "No arrests have been made at this stage."