When I was first engaged, I suppose that I did not really have much visibility of the relationship, but by September 2018 it had become apparent to me that there was a difference of view between CMAL and Ferguson about what was possible and what would be achieved.
As the year progressed, it became much more apparent that CMAL had no interest in compromising on a number of things. For example, the ships are dual fuel—liquified natural gas and diesel—but it was pretty apparent that if the first ship, 801, met the July 2019 operational date, the infrastructure would not be in place to bunker LNG. LNG could have been got on board from a road tanker from the south of England. However, LNG is not an easy fuel and is quite dangerous in a maritime environment, so it needs careful bunkering. That infrastructure was not in place.
Therefore, among other things, I suggested that there was little point in commissioning the LNG system at that stage—and, if people had held off commissioning the LNG system, that would have saved time, which they were trying to do at that point. My suggestion was absolutely rejected out of hand by CMAL, even though it was obvious that the LNG system would have to be recommissioned when the bunkering arrangements were finally available.
I also suggested that all design changes be frozen, again to ease the problem that Ferguson was having in dealing with the design changes that CMAL was still putting forward. CMAL initially agreed to the freeze but subsequently reneged on that and kept giving Ferguson design changes. When I raised that matter with Transport Scotland, Transport Scotland said that CMAL had said that it really had no choice, so I never really got a satisfactory answer on that. However, at some point, CMAL had undertaken not to offer more design changes.
Those examples are symptomatic of how badly the relationship went. When we were in the difficult situation of trying to decide on a way forward, I advocated for and negotiated a way out of the difficulty that FMEL was experiencing, but the proposal was rejected out of hand by CMAL, which said that it had no interest in it and thought it better that Ferguson should go into administration. I had some very difficult meetings with CMAL and saw at first hand that it really had no interest in compromising.
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