THE SNP have demanded more details from the Labour Government following Keir Starmer’s pledge of £200 million in investment to help support workers at the Grangemouth oil refinery.
The SNP have called for an “urgent need for focus, clarity and the application of pace” following Starmer’s announcement of the cash while speaking to activists at the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow last Sunday.
Starmer’s pledge came just days after First Minister John Swinney promised £25m in the Scottish Budget.
Despite the £200m in funding pledge there has been no government statement in the Commons while requests for a parliamentary statement by the SNP’s energy spokesman, Dave Doogan, were rejected this week.
In a letter to Labour UK Government energy minister, Michael Shanks, the SNP has demanded urgency in detail regarding the money as more than 400 Petroineos workers are to be made redundant at Scotland's only oil refinery as early as May.
On Friday it was announced that more jobs are set to go at Grangemouth, due to the closure of the refinery, as staff at Ineos Olefins and Polymers UK, separate from the refinery, found out they were being made redundant.
In the letter to Shanks, Doogan (below) stressed that although the announcement for the £200m was welcome, what is now required is urgent “full clarity on how and when this funding will be available”.
He wrote: “With no corresponding statement to Parliament on Monday despite redundancy notices having been issued to workers, I am sure you will agree that there is a requirement for urgent clarification from your government regarding the pace, objective and strategy behind this funding.
“In that respect, I would welcome further details on the points below.
“- Given the National Wealth Fund will provide the investment, is it anticipated that these monies are loans to be paid back or is it grant funding?
“- As this is intended to be joint funding, in the event that no viable private sector investment propositions come forward, will this mean Grangemouth won’t see a penny of this money? If so, does the UK Government have a contingency plan to invest public monies independently of the private sector?
“- Is this entirely new spend that does not impact monies previously allocated to other elements connected to Scotland’s energy sector including the Falkirk and Grangemouth Growth Deal?
“- When does the UK Government plan to make these funds available?
“- Why was it not possible to allocate these funds prior to redundancy notices being issued?
“ - Does the UK Government envisage these funds allowing Grangemouth to continue operate as a refinery or will propositions be limited to repurposing of the site – for example, for low carbon hydrogen, clean eFuels or sustainable aviation fuels?”
Doogan concluded the letter by outlining that on Wednesday Scottish Labour failed to vote for the Scottish Government’s budget which contained £25m for Grangemouth.
He added the refinery and helping the 400 workers who are set to lose their jobs is a priority for Scotland.
Out of a current workforce of 475 employees, just 75 can expect to keep their jobs over the next two years, Ineos confirmed.
The refinery will be transformed into a much scaled-down facility for the import and distribution of “finished fuels”.
Petroineos, a joint venture between Jim Ratcliffe's (above) energy giant Ineos and the state-owned PetroChina, said that Grangemouth is the UK’s oldest oil refinery, and the facility is incapable of competing with “bigger, more modern and efficient sites in the Middle East, Asia and Africa”.
Shareholders are said to have invested more than $1.2 billion since 2011 and incurred losses of $775m over the same period.
However, it was revealed last year that the UK Government was providing a £600m loan guarantee for an Ineos petrochemical plant, Europe's largest, in Belgium.
