States buys fuel ships
Friday 19th December 2008, 3:15PM GMT.
The States has bought two specialist fuel carrying vessels in an unprecedented move to ensure the continued supply of oil to the island.
The two ships are both owned by the same company, and are two of only seven in the world that are able to enter St Sampson’s harbour. One of these vessels is the only ship serving the island at the moment.
At a special meeting of States members at Beau Sejour this afternoon, Chief Minister Lyndon Trott (pictured) said that the purchase was made following meetings of the Emergency Powers Authority and the Policy Council.
The council had learned on 17 November that the company which owned the two ships which could serve the islands had gone into administration.
The decision to purchase was made following consultation with an oil industry specialist and shipping advisers. ‘Unless we had reacted with the speed that we did and conducted negotiations in a confidential and commercial manner… there was the very real prospect that the two vessels built to serve these Islands and which to all intents and purposes are irreplaceable in the short term could have been sold to another buyer’ Deputy Trott told members.
- More details in Saturday’s Guernsey Press.
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Oh my goodness! So now we have an airline making massive losses (to secure an air route) and two ships of unknown age to secure fuel supplies! How much are these going to cost to run and is the island about to become a fuel importer or just a shipping line? Where is all this tax payer’s money coming from??
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You can’t really compare the two. An airline such as Aurigny will need to run it’s scheduled routes regardless of passenger numbers, however the ships can run when needed, although I would imagine it will be a rather predictable movement. I doubt very much they will set sail with 1 gallon of fuel to make sure they don’t “lose the slot”.
The age of the ships is completely irrelevant, the condition of the hull, engines and electrics is what will be important so lets hope they were well surveyed before purchased.
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Forward thinking for a change.
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So our unelected CM is spending lots more of our money on things he knows nothing about.
Why? Because he can I suspect. Has this puchase came about at the expense of other more pressing needs?
Time will tell!
I bet management companies are rolling out their red carpets to CM and Co to win the contract.
What are these vessels going to cost us on an annual basis?
Are we going to see massive increases, green taxes, on our fuel?
If this leads us into more debt which we are expected to shoulder then this is yet another Circus act.
Why weren’t we told about the deal in advance?
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the ships are less than 2 years old, and will continue to be used on charter around the uk and europe, and will be available as they are now , to bring fuel in to guernsey on each spring tide, as they do now.If you had bothered to read the link to mr Trotts speech, you would have learned the facts, however, IMO there was no alternative, to safeguard our islands supply of fuel, in fact if the severity of the islands fuel importation problems over the last 9/10 months were made known to the public, there would be not doubt in islanders minds that this was the only solution.
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I imagine the argument or should we be posh and say discussion; is not whether the Trott feller bought mthe ships or not:
It’s that he did unlawfully, and that is the crux of the arg, er’ -discussion.
He takes upon himself to do things without consultation. Breaking the law is a criminal offence; and Guernsey has no place for a criminal as head of a rather poor States; I say poor because they don’t seem to have any gumption to be rid of law-breakers.
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But Eric, working within the rules would have meant Guernsey running completely out of fuel within days. I don’t think the Policy Council has any choice whatsoever, and facing the consequences of making that decision outside of the rules has to be better than the alternative of facing the huge problem of the island coming to a complete standstill over Xmas and New Year, with nobody able to fly/sail in or out, and no petrol for any vehicles.
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Well David if you believe that then you believe also in fairies (the fairy-tale ones)
Do you honestly think it was a matter of days?
if so it shows an ever worse crime by these so-called politicians;
To have allowed such a crisis(If there ever was one)to get to that state of affairs:
So either they were incompetent–
Or they could have had an emergency meeting-
But no they let one man dictate and do things unlawfully
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Eric what on earth are you talking about ? Are you saying that we should store several weeks of oil to the extent that the storage facility at Bulwer Avenue would need to be several times larger than it is ? That’s the only way for us to store more oil. Regular as clockwork shipments are far more viable but we cannot control the financial solvency of the shippers.
From the way you are talking, with of course the benefit of hindsight, the States should have a contingency plan for absolutely everything that might conceivably go wrong, regardless of the probability of it ever happening.
That strategy would probably add around £5 billion to the capital “wish list” of government projects which seems rather a non-starter.
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David
Looking at the recent visits of the Vendrey Tora to Guernsey seems to support the view of Eric.
The ship usually loads at Stanmore near Liverpool. It has visited Jersey more times than Guernsey and has made surprisingly few visits to Guernsey from Stanmore. So, it seems that many weeks supplies are a norm. Could the few days left have been a normal situation, just a few days before a topping up?
The other Guernsey ship the Vedrey Thor is looking a little lonely this morning anchored off Bembridge, where it has been since the 16th December.
Now that someone has purchased the ships there is no need for any more secrecy. Let’s see the figures. Come on you deputies ask questions and insist on answers or no ratification of the deal. You have the dealmakers by the proverbials. Get the answers.
Happy Christmas to you all.
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Stephen if what you say is correct then there are clearly some answers needed. Hopefully the Policy Council has not been misled by its advisors on this one.
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David
Have a look at the excellent site http://www.shipais.com/
Key in Vedrey Tora or Vedrey Thor in Search and you will see where the ships are likely to be.
The Vedrey Tora vessel frequently visits Liverpool to take on fuel supplies. In the box above the details of the ship is a small blue box with a V. Click on this and you will see the recent visits to the Channel Islands of Tora.
Vedrey Thor is still at anchor off Bembridge. Its been there for 11 days. No sign of it moving.
I though the Thor might be used as a chemical or gas carrying tanker but I see a different vessel is on its way past the Needles to somewhere called St Helier.
I think it was the Press that pointed out the tankers can only use St Sampson’s when there is a spring tide.
Perhaps the Press and deputies will ask what the vessels do the rest of the time.
The available evidence suggests that there are questions that need asking and answers that need to be given.
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Does this mean that ‘enough fuel for a few days’ was pure spin? Or have I just lost my timings? I can’t equate the two facts:
1. Company going under – need to secure fuel supply
2. Only enough fuel for a few days
with
Has the boat been here in the last few days?
Did all this happen a while back?
Someone please explain.
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As someone who has critisised the lack of leadership over the handling of the Landsbanki situation, I applaud the decisive action taken by our political leaders in respect of the purchase of the fuel tankers.
We expect our Chief Minister and Policy Council to act in the best interests of our Bailiwick at all times and in all circumstances. If authority has been exceeded but the right decision has been made then we can judge that our politicians have acted correctly. If the wrong decision is made then we would expect any honourable politician to resign.
This is not the first time that Guernsey politicians have had to make speedy decisions ahead of States approval.
This decision if right, does not suddenly undo the damage caused to the Bailiwick, by the indecsiveness over Landsbanki, nor does it give any justification for increased powers for the Chief Minister and Policy Council.
It is simply a step in the right direction of our political leaders showing they have the ability to deal with crisis situations. There is a huge amount of trust which has to be earned by our political leaders, and this needs to be demonstrated over the coming months.
As for this particular decision, there have been some very questioning comments made in This is Guernsey and we need some politician/s to get answers . Only then can we really judge the political information we have been fed, and whether we have been given the whole truth or just a version which suits those who seek more power.
Tony Webber
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