Agenda and decisions

to agree that the item of business listed on the agenda was of an urgent nature and required to be considered this day to enable the Committee to consider the matter at the earliest available opportunity and take decisions thereon.

No interests were declared.

(i)       to note the public procurement exercise undertaken to appoint a preferred bidder to be the Council’s joint venture partner for the Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub;

(ii)       to approves the appointment of the Preferred Bidder;

(iii)      to instruct the Head of Commercial and Procurement, following consultation with the Chief Officer – Finance to progress all further work to conclude the contract terms and agreements with the Preferred Bidder, as outlined in section 5;

(iv)      to instruct the Head of Commercial and Procurement to report to City Growth and Resources Committee in February 2022 on the structure of the proposed contracts, the expected return on investment to the Council and detail on the joint venture structure, governance, obligations and risk;

(v)      to agree that a joint press release would be issued by the Council and the Preferred Bidder following the conclusion of the Urgent Business Committee;

(vi)      to instruct the Chief Officer - City Growth to continue to engage and lobby for additional external funding from both the UK Government and the devolved Scottish Government and note that the Leader of Aberdeen City Council would engage in discussions during COP26 in Glasgow with both UK and Scottish governments regarding obtaining additional funding for Aberdeen’s Hydrogen Hub;

(vii)     to note that the Strategic Commercial Manager would provide via email clarification on the date when it was agreed to enter into a procurement exercise to identify and appoint a Joint Venture partner for the development of the Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub; and

(viii)    to note that the Chief Officer – Finance would circulate by email information relating to the existing level of funding from the EU Government, UK Government and Scottish Government for the Hydrogen project.