Marine / Bill for stand-in tug after Dunter damage reached more than £300k
SHETLAND Islands Council (SIC) paid more than £300,000 for a relief vessel to cover its Port of Sullom Voe tug Dunter when she suffered significant damage last year.
Nobody was injured and there was no risk of pollution.
A report to a meeting of the SIC’s harbour board on Wednesday said the bill for the emergency charter came to £318,000 in total.
The SIC has four tugs which help oil tankers berth at Sullom Voe Terminal. They are Tystie, Dunter, Tirrick and Shalder.
As all tankers greater than 200 metres in length must be escorted to berth at Sullom Voe Terminal with a minimum of four tugs, the SIC had to act quickly to procure a stand-in vessel.
A report to councillors said procurement became a “matter of extreme urgency” because an oil tanker was due at Sullom Voe Terminal by 21 December.
A towage vessel and crew familiar with the operations at the port was sourced and supplied at short notice, the report said, and the tug arrived ready for operation on 19 December.
The procurement fell under a contract standing order exception due to its emergency nature.
After extensive repairs down south, the Dunter returned to service on 29 January.
During questioning at Wednesday’s meeting, Shetland Central councillor Davie Sandison said he was assuming that the emergency charter was acceptable from an audit point of view.
Infrastructure director John Smith confirmed that was the case.
He also said in theory it would be possible to have a relief tug stationed at the port but added that it would need to be on standby all the time, which might not work out to be best value.
Smith said in the past there have been times when the SIC has had a spare tug, but that was when the port of Sullom Voe was busier.
He also confirmed insurance policies are in place for SIC tugs and ferries, but said the Dunter incident would fall within the excess amount.
Smith said the excess amount for tugs was £10 million and £5 million for ferries.
Meanwhile a report to councillors also said the expiration of a safety equipment certificate on the Dunter was raised by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).
An explanation around why the certificate was allowed to expire was given as: “The MCA as the awarding body, wrote to towage management in July 2024 to inform they would not be carrying out safety equipment survey inspections on low risk vessels under 500gt including SIC tugs.
“This was directed at Tirrick and Shalder, but not Tystie and Dunter. Furthermore, at that time an external organisation was contracted to carry out inspections on board Dunter and Tystie, but not all safety equipment was inspected.
“This lead to an incorrect assumption that the work to revalidate a safety equipment certificate had actually taken place.”
On 6 February the Dunter and Tystie underwent surveys to confirm the condition of all safety equipment, with the renewed certificates now issued.
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