Mr Blair simply judged that Mr Mandelson could be better trusted to make the precise calculations needed at that time to consolidate the peace process.
His handwritten field notes show street by street calculations in "chain lengths, " a painstaking process that used metal chains and heavy brass compasses, theodolytes and geodesic transits to reconcile the difference between true north and magnetic north readings.
First Group was initially told it had won, but the tendering process was halted because the Department for Transport made mistakes with their calculations.
The calculations indicate that the formation of longer chain hydrocarbons can happen in pure methane but the process is accelerated when the methane molecules are in contact with metal or carbon surfaces, e.g. diamond which act as catalysts for the methane-polymerisation to occur.