No ferries, no fuel tanks: Work still to start on the liquid gas bunkers meant to have been ready this year
Work has yet to begin on huge underground tanks designed to store gas which will power two delayed and over-budget ferries, we can reveal, and experts believe the plans should now be scrapped.
The £5 million contract for the bunkering facilities at Ardrossan and Uig was signed off more than two years ago and they were meant to be ready this year but ground has not been broken at either port.
State-owned Ferguson Marine is building the UK’S first dual fuel ferries which can run on diesel and more environmentally friendly liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The two delayed ferries – the Glen Sannox, which is due to serve Arran, and the as yet unnamed Hull 802, which will serve Skye, Harris and North Uist – are £150m over budget and won’t be ready until next year.
Last month, spending watchdog Audit Scotland revealed the contract for the two ferries was awarded without any financial safeguards and that officials did not understand the scale of the work involved.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPS she took ultimate responsibility for the failure to deliver the ferries on time and at cost while suggesting disgraced former finance secretary Derek Mackay signed off the contracts against expert advice. Last week Mackay vowed to give his version of events to MSPS.
When the 150 cubic metre tanks were announced in 2020, Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), the Scottish Government quango that owns ferry infrastructure, said they would provide the source of LNG fuelling for the ferries.
However, CMAL confirmed yesterday work had not begun and there was no timescale for completion. Experts now doubt if the facilities will ever be built.
Retired naval architect Euan Haig said: “The shore facilities for LNG should be complete by now if LNG really was to be available for the ships…that they are not signals the possibility they are no longer intended for use. That would be a rational decision. Why not scrap both ships and procure simpler, cheaper, more weatherly vessels? That, too, would be a rational decision.”
Alf Baird, a former professor of maritime business at Napier University who sat on the Scottish Government’s Expert Ferry Group until it was axed last month, said: “It would not surprise me if CMAL cancel the LNG bunkering facilities. In the wider shipping industry LNG was always seen as a temporary solution before better fuel options became available.”
We told last week how the dual fuel engines may not work because they have not been tested since they were delivered five years ago.
Shadow Transport Secretary Liam Kerr said: “Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP said they would replace 12 ferries for £250 million in 2014 but this chicken and egg farce has left the public facing a bill of £350 millionplus and not one has been completed.”
CMAL said: “The installation of the LNG bunkers will require groundwork, which will be carried out as part of port enabling works prior to the vessels coming into service. This will minimise disruption. There are no plans to cancel the order.
“The bunkering facilities are not an isolated project but will form part of a programme of port enabling works with a wider project timeline. This is still being finalised with Peel Ports and The Highland Council. It is therefore not possible to provide a specific timescale for a single section of the project.”
The Scottish Government said: “We have been very clear that we remain fully committed to completeing vessels 801 and 802 and the associated infrastructure for their deployment.”