Environmental lobby group Greenpeace went to some unusual...

Environmental lobby group Greenpeace went to some unusual lengths to try to get Jeff Sandefer, President of Texan equity fund Sandefer Capital Partners, to withdraw his financial support for shale oil company Southern Pacific Petroleum (SPP).

Greenpeace says in a release on its website that Sandefer was greeted by protesters as he arrived at SPP's Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) in Brisbane on Friday.

"Shale oil is a terrible investment," Greenpeace climate campaigner Gareth Walton says in the release.

"It has major economic, environmental and social risks. Our advice to Sandefer is that there is no future in shale oil and he should withdraw his investment now."


This advice, however, went unheeded.

As reported by Oil & Gas Today on Friday, Southern Pacific Petroleum received "overwhelming shareholder approval" for the funding package of up to A$51 million to be provided by SCP Koala Partners.

In its attempt to stop this support, Greenpeace said it delivered a one way airline ticket out of Australia to Sandefer at his hotel and followed that up with "deliveries of a golden piece of shale oil - fool's gold - and a membership certificate to the white elephant club".

Greenpeace claims Sandefer received more than 1,500 emails from members of the public calling on him to withdraw his investment in SPP.

However, on Friday SPP Chairman Campbell Anderson said: "We are extremely pleased with the level of support we received from our shareholders today. We are also delighted to have the support of a significant, active energy investor who shares our vision for developing the company's extensive oil shale resources."

SPP Managing Director Jim McFarland commented on the progress at the Stuart Oil Shale Project: "We have continued to improve performance at Stage 1 during the current production run that began on 8 April.


"Production for the current run presently stands at more than 102,000 barrels with year-to-date production at more than 213,000 barrels, which is already some 65% of what we produced during the whole of 2002.


McFarland added:"The Sandefer financing package will allow us to build on our successes to date."