The future of 250 jobs at the Kvaerner Energy plant in Clydebank is in doubt.

Unions at the Clyde engineering yard say the owners have decided to wind up production.

Management had expected to take ownership securing up to 250 jobs for the next three to five years.

However, the management buy-out has collapsed and the company's order book is empty after the autumn of next year.

On the market

The company is said to be winding down production immediately and is putting the yard up for sale.

There will be no redundancies before Christmas but there may be some early next year.

Kvaerner said in September it expected to sell the operation by the end of the year.

The sale is part of a global restructuring plan which threatened the future of Kvaerner's Govan shipyard until it was bought by GEC Marconi.

'Confident' of buyer

A spokesman said at the time that the company was confident of finding a buyer for Kvaerner Energy, which is based on the site of the former John Brown shipyard.

Kvaerner Energy is part of the Kvaerner Thermal Power Group which also includes operations in Norway and the Middle East.

The company designs and builds power stations and supplies and services heavy duty gas turbines worldwide.