SCOTLAND’S last remaining oil refinery could reportedly close as early as this May.
Workers at the Grangemouth oil refinery near Falkirk have been handed redundancy notices and it is expected that more than 400 jobs will be lost.
Now it has emerged the refinery could close as soon as May – just three months from now.
Decommissioning work is already well underway, according to the Daily Record which also reports that the demolition of the refinery apparatus could take several years.
It comes amid an intensified campaign from Unite, the trade union representing workers in Grangemouth, to save the site.
Sharon Graham (above), the union’s general secretary, said the Government’s response to its growth forecast being halved amid investors’ fears of stagflation taking hold should be to pump money into projects like Grangemouth.
She said: “Grangemouth could become a sustainable aviation fuels refinery, Sizewell C is still waiting for the green light, and we are still not manufacturing our own wind turbines.
“The Government has already reshaped its fiscal rules to allow for investment in infrastructure projects. Now it needs to put its money where its mouth is.
"No investment equals no growth. So what are we waiting for?”
Earlier on Friday, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said he would “consider” calls to fast-track the proposed Acorn carbon-capture project in Aberdeenshire in a move that could secure a future for Grangemouth.
Some have suggested the carbon capture project – which takes polluting CO2 and deposits it in subsea rock formations – could be linked with Grangemouth.
While the UK Government has provided funding for two similar carbon capture schemes in England, it has failed to back the Scottish proposal.
Asked on Friday if he would commit to fast-tracking the project to help secure “some sort of future for Grangemouth”, Miliband (below) said he would “obviously look” at such a proposal.
He said the UK Government was considering how to “make the most of the potential resources at Grangemouth”, adding: “Carbon capture and storage could be part of it, sustainable aviation fuel could be part of it.”
Greens MSP Gillian Mackay said that the news the refinery could be shuttered within three months was “a further devastating blow to hundreds of workers and to a community that feels like it has been abandoned and left to the will of a detached billionaire”.
The Grangemouth refinery is run by Petroineos, a join venture by the Chinese-state owned PetroChina and billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos.
Mackay, who lives nearby, added: “All of us in the town know somebody who is employed at the site, and we all know the businesses who rely on it. Three months is no time at all, and a lot of people will be extremely worried and angry about what is happening.
“The Labour Government was elected on a promise to step in and save the jobs, but those words are looking extremely hollow today. With only months to go, it is clear that they have no plan to protect workers or to provide jobs for the future.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar faced an intense grilling from the media on Thursday and struggled to respond to accusations his party had misled voters during the election with promises to step in and save jobs.
That evening’s Question Time, filmed in Glasgow, also saw Labour minister Michael Shanks confronted over the UK Government’s failure to save the site.
The timeline over the refinery’s closure is contested, with Unite saying job losses will take effect between three to 18 months from now. STV News has reported the refinery is set to close in June.
