This Is Guernsey

By Joel de Woolfson

Vedrey Tora leaving St Sampson’s harbour. (Picture by Tony Rive)

GUERNSEY paid €16.9m. for two tankers that have guaranteed the island’s fuel supply.

The Vedrey Tora and Vedrey Thor were valued at between €14m. and €16m. each when built a little more than a year ago.

They were bought last month by the States after the company that owned them went into administration.

In an unprecedented move, the Policy Council exceeded its mandate by authorising the purchase after fears emerged that any potential new owner might have removed them from supplying the island.

That would have left Guernsey without any reasonable means of receiving fuel because the Vedrey Tora is currently the only vessel available, out of a total of seven worldwide, capable of using St Sampson’s Harbour.

When he announced the purchase, Chief Minister Lyndon Trott could not say how much the island had paid because due diligence was ongoing.

But in a special Billet d’Etat released today, Deputy Trott said the amount paid took into account the cost of refurbishing the ballast tanks of the Vedrey Thor.

The Policy Council will ask at this month’s States meeting for deputies to approve its decision.

It will also ask members to approve Treasury and Resources actions in granting a loan to newly-formed company, Jamesco 750 Limited, which will hold the tankers on taxpayers’ behalf.

Deputy Trott said the council had no option but to break States procedure and act quickly after it learned that another interested party had already had a bid rejected for the Vedrey Tora by the time Commerce and Employment was informed of Svithoid Tankers’ collapse.

‘When the owners of these two vessels were put into administration in October, the subsequent offer on the shipping market represented a serious threat to the Bailiwick in that vessels could well have been sold to other parties who would relocate them elsewhere in the world,’ Deputy Trott said.

‘There would be no immediate alternative practical means of importing fuel to the island on any scale.

It was necessary for the States to take action to safeguard the long-term interests of the Bailiwick by purchasing the two available vessels.’

The fuel scare also led Commerce and Employment to conclude that Guernsey needed to introduce minimum stockholding obligations legislation to ensure that the island always had ample supplies.

Deputy Trott said deputies would be asked to direct the department to produce a report by January 2010.

The council is also asking members to direct T&R and the States Assembly and Constitution Committee to review rules relating to unforeseen circumstances which require immediate action and recommend changes as appropriate.

Article posted on 9th January, 2009 - 11.30am