GUERNSEY Gas has called for the States to consider importing energy from France by pipeline.

Managing director Paul Garlick said the island could enjoy a greener, more economical and more secure existence by importing natural gas and oil through a dual pipeline shared with Jersey.

Gas could be up to 30-35% cheaper, he predicted, as had happened in the Isle of Man.

‘It makes a great deal of sense from an energy policy perspective, a land use perspective, and an economic perspective,’ he said.

A report commissioned by the States of Jersey had put the cost of laying the pipeline to Jersey at about £40m. but Mr Garlick suggested the islands could fund the project together.

That would, he said, be cheaper than buying fuel tankers every few years or creating a new oil berth.

He said the States had never properly looked at an option that could free land currently needed by the energy companies.

‘The States says “how can we have a secure fuel source?”

‘We say give us a pipeline.

‘Then the States says “how are we going to have enough land to build more offices, houses, leisure buildings?”

‘The answer is the same – give us a pipeline.’

He argued the current system was insecure and unsustainable because the tankers would deteriorate to the extent that fuel companies would refuse to fill them.

‘The ships – two of only a few in the world that are suitable to sit on the bottom of St Sampson’s Harbour -were bought at a cheap price because a company went bust.

‘These ships won’t last for ever, and the next might not be cheap.’