Controversial hydrogen project re-emerges after being turned down on safety grounds

Martin Shipton

Opponents of a controversial hydrogen energy project who thought they’d seen it off when the Health and Safety Executive said it was too unsafe to go ahead have had to resurrect their campaign after a modified version of the scheme was resubmitted.

This time the health and safety regulator has withdrawn its previous objection and now claims the scheme is safe.

The project, at the Brynmenyn Industrial Estate, near Bridgend, is on land owned by Bridgend County Borough Council. Originally the council was going to be a partner in the project with Japanese energy company Marubeni, and it was praised by Welsh Government Ministers, including former First Minister Vaughan Gething, as a groundbreaking green energy initiative.

Determined

But local residents and businesses fought a determined campaign, and after the HSE’s objection, the application was withdrawn, with the council saying it could no longer afford to be involved.

Now, however, a fresh application for what appears to be a very similar project with Japanese energy company Marubeni,has been submitted.

The cash-strapped council has done a deal to sell the site for around £1m to the Cardiff Capital Region, a consortium of 10 local authorities that was established to attract economic development projects. But the sale will only go ahead if the new version of the project gets planning permission.

A spokesperson for the opponents of the project said: “The first application was withdrawn due to health and safety concerns with the HSE taking the view that the proposed hydrogen production plant was too close to residents and businesses.

‘Low risk’

However, another application has now been submitted which contradicts the previous conclusion. It’s claimed that the new project is low risk, and the HSE says it’s fine for it to go ahead.

“It appears the application is similar except that it will produce and store less hydrogen – 3.60 tonnes, as opposed to the previous 4.99 tonnes. Yet nothing has changed with the storage capacity and there are few differences between the two applications. The tube trailer size has been reduced from 1.1 tonnes x 2 to 0.463 x 4, which is roughly the same amount.

“Marubeni seems to be juggling figures to make it seem as if they are reducing the production capacity and storage, but on closer inspection they are similar. So how can this now be safer? This is alarming – what was not safe is now safe!

“We are still fighting against this proposed project in our community. The material causes remain the same: the traffic, noise, dust, will still increase due to the refuelling of HGVs, buses, council vehicles and tube trailers; all these vehicles will pass along the by pass A4605, contributing to the heavy congestion which is already an issue. Most of the consultees on the planning application seem to be disregarding the impact that the community will have to endure.

“Marubeni has a bad health and safety record, which is well documented. It is disappointing that this financial venture is being pushed, even though the community is opposed to it.”

Convictions

Marubeni certainly has a chequered history, with a total of 86 separate convictions involving the corporation and its subsidiary companies in the United States since 2000 with fines totalling nearly $160m.

The two most serious offences relate to two bribery convictions under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, with one resulting in a fine of £88m and the other a fine of $54.6m.

In what was chronologically the first case, in 2012, Marubeni was hired by the four-company TSKJ joint venture to help win contracts to build liquefied natural gas facilities on Bonny Island in Nigeria. Between 1995 and 2004, the joint venture won four contracts worth more than $6bn.

TSKJ paid $132m to a Gibraltar corporation controlled by London lawyer Jeffrey Tesler and $51m to Marubeni. The money was intended to be used to bribe Nigerian government officials to secure the contracts. Marubeni was fined $54.6m.

The second corruption conviction involved paying bribes to Indonesian officials in order to secure the contract to build a major power plant in Indonesia.

At the time of this conviction in 2014 the US Department of Justice issued a statement which said: “Marubeni pleaded guilty to engaging in a seven-year scheme to pay – and conceal – bribes to a high-ranking member of Parliament and other foreign officials in Indonesia. The company refused to play by the rules, then refused to cooperate with the government’s investigation. Now Marubeni faces the consequences for its crooked business practices in Indonesia.”

Marubeni entered a plea of guilty to an eight-count criminal information filed in the US District Court for the District of Connecticut, charging Marubeni with one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and seven counts of violating the FCPA. Marubeni admitted its criminal conduct and agreed to pay a criminal fine of $88m.

Financial offences

In addition Marubeni and its subsidiary companies were convicted of two financial offences with fines totalling $12.8m, 32 environment-related offences with fines totalling $3,055,527, 49 safety-related offences with fines totalling $1,300,823 and one employment-related offence with a penalty of $5,210.

Section 57 of the UK’s Public Contracts Regulations 2015 states: “Contracting authorities shall exclude an economic operator from participation in a procurement procedure where they have established that [the] economic operator has been convicted of [a list of offences including bribery, corruption and fraud].

The section does, however, include a clause that states: “A contracting authority may disregard any of the prohibitions … , on an exceptional basis, for overriding reasons relating to the public interest such as public health or protection of the environment.”

A Freedom of Information disclosure shows that Economy Minister Vaughan Gething attended a meeting with Marubeni representatives at the Welsh Government’s office in Cathays Park, Cardiff on August 24 2022 and that Climate Change Minister Julie James met representatives of the company on another occasion recorded in an undated minute.

We have previously asked the Welsh Government whether it was aware of Marubeni’s record of legal violations including corruption, and whether it was comfortable dealing with such a corporation.

A Welsh Government spokesman responded: “Any commercial agreement between the Welsh Government and another organisation must be compliant with UK law and financial regulations.

“We have also introduced the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023, which public bodies, including the Welsh Government, will be required to comply with when tendering contracts.”