THISTED: Criticism rained down on Kristian Jensen when he left the chairmanship of the Port of Hanstholm board after only two months in April 2022 to become director of the business organization Green Power Denmark. Now DOI.dk can reveal that Kristian Jensen managed to fire then director Nils Skeby in the last days before his farewell. Since his dismissal in the spring, the port has only had an acting director, and the position has not been advertised since.
Today, the port is so deeply in debt that the municipal council has recently decided to take over the operation of the port, so that it will become municipal from January 1, 2023. The fired director's rescue plan for the port was never implemented.
Danish Offshore Industry - DOI.dk can now document through access to documents at Thisted Municipality that the former top politician, on behalf of a unanimous port board, recommended to Thisted Municipality's finance committee that the then director of Hanstholm Port, Nils Skeby, should be fired. According to the access to documents, Kristian Jensen wrote the following to the municipal director of Thisted Municipality:
"The board of Hanstholm Port held a board meeting on Teams Tuesday afternoon to discuss the situation with personnel and cooperation in Hanstholm Port. A unanimous board has decided to recommend to the finance committee that we wish to terminate the cooperation with Nils Skeby. According to the statutes, this will require the approval of the finance committee, and I must therefore ask you to submit the matter to the finance committee as soon as possible. Dear Kristian Jensen".
The access to documents further states:
"The municipal director recommends that the cooperation with Nils Skeby be terminated."
However, the explanation was later made public that Nils Skeby himself had chosen to withdraw. This caused great local criticism at the port of Hanstholm. The well-liked director had both created a port council and a preliminary agreement with European Energy, which was to create an energy cluster with solar and wind energy plants and establish a PtX plant for the production of green methanol and hydrogen at the Port of Hanstholm.
Kristian Jensen: No comment
Kristian Jensen officially took up the position of chairman of the Port of Hanstholm for the period from March 1 to April 20, 2022. The recommendation for dismissal was followed on Kristian Jensen's last working day as chairman of the board. Even more remarkable is that Nils Skeby himself chose to resign on April 18.
When presented with the dismissal, Kristian Jensen says in a written comment in a text message:
"I have no comments at all about that" followed by an open-handed and smiling emoji.
The former port director, on the other hand, would like to give his view of his time as director.
- I came to Hanstholm Port because the port was a burning platform. They had chosen to make a huge investment in the port expansion, without the parallel business development having been made, explains Nils Skeby, who does not comment on whether he left himself or was fired.
Nils Skeby took office as director of Hanstholm Port in August 2020, after previously being a board member in the port. He was hired to kick-start the green business development of the fishing port, which has been strongly affected by declining fishing activity.
Hanstholm Port has a debt of 630 million DKK after the expensive port expansion to over 600 million DKK. Therefore, the city council has chosen to convert the port into a municipal port. Thisted Municipality must initially repay the port's overdraft of 63 million DKK when it is taken over on 1 January 2023.
Fhv. Port Director Nils Skeby's plans for an energy cluster at the port, which resulted in a cooperation agreement with European Energy, have not been implemented after his exit from the port.
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