Grangemouth, Scotland’s only oil refinery, is to close in 2025 with the loss of 400 jobs, operator Petroineos has said, according to Reuters, as part of plans to turn the 100-year-old plant into fuels import terminal.
Petroineos said last November it was preparing to shut down Grangemouth, Britain’s oldest refinery. Production will cease in the second quarter of next year, subject to an employee consultation, a company spokesperson said.
The site will become an import and distribution terminal for finished fuels, which will cut the number of employees at the site from 475 to around 75 over the next two years.
Petroineos is a joint venture between PetroChina International London (PCIL) and INEOS Group, a British chemicals firm founded by billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
The company cited economic difficulties as the reason for the closure, stating that the company had invested $1.2 billion since 2011, and returned losses of more than $775 million over the same period.
“Grangemouth is increasingly unable to compete with bigger, more modern and efficient sites in the Middle East, Asia and Africa” where Dangote Refinery just opened.
Due to its size and configuration, Grangemouth incurs high levels of capital expenditure each year just to maintain its license to operate,” the company said. It said the plant is currently losing around $500,000 per day and expects to see a $200 million loss in 2024.
