Residents plan demo against controversial hydrogen plant

Martin Shipton

Residents concerned about the sale by a cash-strapped council of a plot of land for the use of a hydrogen company with a worrying safety and corruption record are planning a protest demonstration on Wednesday September 25 .

Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) plans to sell land at the Brynmenyn Industrial Estate, near Bridgend, for around £1m to Cardiff Capital Region, a consortium of 10 local authorities in south east Wales, local businesses and other organisations.

The land would then be used in conjunction with the Japanese Marubeni Corporation to develop hydrogen as a clean energy source.

In 2022 BCBC signed a memorandum of understanding with Marubeni which set out how they intended to work together to explore and develop a hydrogen energy initiative. But later BCBC withdrew from the project on the grounds of affordability. It was later taken up by Cardiff Capital Region, which will buy the land if planning permission for a hydrogen and solar plant on the site is granted.

Chequered history

However, Marubeni 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.

Bribes

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 Corporation, a Japanese trading company involved in the handling of products and provision of services in a broad range of sectors around the world, including power generation, entered a plea of guilty today for its participation in a scheme to pay bribes to high-ranking government officials in Indonesia to secure a lucrative power project.

“Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Michael J. Gustafson of the District of Connecticut and Assistant Director in Charge Valerie Parlave of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement.

“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,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Raman. “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.”

Acting US Attorney Michael J. Gustafson said: “For several years, the Marubeni Corporation worked in concert with a Connecticut company, among others, to bribe Indonesian officials in order to secure a contract to provide power-related services in Indonesia. Today’s guilty plea by Marubeni Corporation is an important reminder to the business community of the significant consequences of participating in schemes to bribe government officials, whether at home or abroad.”

FBI

The case was investigated by FBI agents from Washington DC with assistance from the Corruption Eradication Commission in Indonesia, the Office of the Attorney General in Switzerland and the Serious Fraud Office in the UK.

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.

A Freedom of Information disclosure shows that when he was Economy Minister, former First 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 the then Climate Change Minister Julie James met representatives of the company on another occasion recorded in an undated minute.

A spokesperson for residents who oppose the project said: “Marubeni has a poor track record on health and safety issues. This is our main concern, because hydrogen is highly flammable, easily ignitable and explosive. That means that if an explosion did occur the local businesses would be destroyed and residents’ homes affected – a situation we would like to avoid.

“BCBC are already well in debt, so their answer is to sell off this land to Cardiff Capital Region for around £1m. This financial incentive is causing the councillors to push through this application. The transfer of land from BCBC to CCR is confusing the planning application objections because, they say, it’s not about ‘material concerns’ but about the change of land use. However, the plant will be built on this land if it is transferred.

“We do not believe that a promise of four to six jobs when the plant is operational is sufficient reason to pursue this, especially as it means that many businesses will be affected by the construction and production of hydrogen, with trailers passing by residents, schools and pubs in the community.”

Bridgend council is due to consider the planning application on October 17, although it cannot make the final decision because it has been “called in” by the Welsh Government.

The demonstration outside the council’s HQ will start at 3.30pm on Wednesday September 25.