Grangemouth Oil Refinery in Scotland to close by 2025 and lose 400 jobs

Petroineos, the operator of Scotland's sole oil refinery, announced on Thursday that it would close the facility in 2025, resulting in the loss of 400 positions. The closure is part of plans for the site, which has been around 100 years, to be converted into a fuels-import terminal.

Petroineos will shut down the refinery in the second quarter next year. This is subject to employee consultations, according to a spokesperson for the company.

The closure of the oil refinery with a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day, which is located in the Firth of Forth, will result in the loss of 400 jobs. 75 jobs will be retained by the company at the site when it is converted into a fuel import terminal.

Petroineos, a joint venture of PetroChina International London and INEOS Group (a British chemicals company founded by billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe), is a British chemical firm.

Trade unions and local politicians opposed Petroineos’s plans to stop refining in Grangemouth due to its impact on local economies and Scotland's security of energy.

Petroineos blamed economic problems for its closure. The company said it had invested more than $1.2 billion in the past five years and suffered losses of over $775 million during the same time period.

"Grangemouth finds it increasingly difficult to compete with larger, more efficient and modern sites in the Middle East and Asia." Grangemouth is a large and complex site that requires high capital expenditures each year to maintain its operating licence. Reporting by Ron Bousso in London and Robert Harvey; editing by Kevin Liffey, Jane Merriman

(source: Reuters)