Just 20 protesters, but the oil trucks won't pass

The biggest oil refinery depot in south-east England has been brought to a halt by just 20 protesters who are not even blocking the entrance.

The biggest oil refinery depot in south-east England has been brought to a halt by just 20 protesters who are not even blocking the entrance.

Yesterday the protesters outside the BP terminal at Coryton in Essex displayed a mood of quiet determination. "We are here until we get what we want. How long that is, depends on Tony Blair," said Chris Bennett, a haulage contractor based on the Isle of Sheppey. His fellow protesters are mostly lorry owners from Kent, Essex and Hampshire.

Almost without a murmur the oil companies have complied with their request to stop deliveries. "The safety of drivers and their loads is paramount to us," said a BP spokesman. "Obviously it could be potentially hazardous. We do not wish to stir up aggression in such a sensitive situation."

For the past two days no tankers have left the BP terminal apart from a few deliveries to the emergency services and one to provide heating for a local poultry farm. The protesters say the tanker drivers have given them "100 per cent support".

Mr Bennett said yesterday: "I've got 15 lorries on the road at the moment and the diesel will run out by tomorrow morning. But I might as well go skint standing here as running lorries with which I can't make a profit. The Government has got to understand it has to drop fuel prices if it doesn't want to drive us all out of business."

The protest at the BP terminal is having a spectacular effect. The refinery is one of the biggest in the country and supplies many different petrol companies including supermarkets. BP says that it serves 270 of their service stations in the region. None has had a delivery.

Ian Gordon, one of the protesting hauliers, used to work at the refinery. "Normally there would be a fuel delivery leaving here every four minutes," he said.

Coryton is a bleak corner of the Thames estuary featuring refineries, oil storage tanks and scrubland. Among the protesters there is a slight air of festivity. Barbecues have been set up and deckchairs laid out.

What sets this protest apart from the industrial picketing of earlier years is that there is no opposition. The oil companies are simply playing dead.

The truckers say that their protest is peaceful. What would happen if a lorry tried to leave the depot? "We would try to persuade them of the error of their ways," said one protester. But the oil companies are clearly not so confident. "I'm sure if word got around that we were breaking the blockades I think the protest would take on a different tone," said a spokesman.

Standing alongside the Coryton protesters are a number of farmers. Robert Lyon, a cereal grower, said: "I've come to support the hauliers. Without them my produce would not get to the supermarkets and we work closely with them."