Scotland’s last remaining oil refinery at Grangemouth is to close next year with the loss of 400 jobs, leaving the UK with only a handful of refineries and increasing the country’s reliance on imported fuel.
The site’s owner Petroineos, a joint venture between Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos and PetroChina, believes that domestic demand for motor fuels will fall sharply with the forthcoming ban on new petrol and diesel cars.
“Demand for key fuels we produce at Grangemouth has already started to decline and, with a ban on new petrol and diesel cars due to come into force within the next decade, we foresee that the market for those fuels will shrink,” Frank Demay, the chief executive at Petroineos Refining, said. “That reality, aligned with the