21st April 2008
Grangemouth dispute
Staff at the INEOS Grangemouth refinery in Scotland have voted for strike action on 27th and 28th April, in a dispute concerning pension rights. As there may be insufficient staff to maintain safe working of the refinery, the decision has been taken to commence shutdown of plant that processes hydrocarbons.
Although it is expected that there will be continuing discussions to attempt to resolve the dispute, Grangemouth refinery provides most of the petroleum products supplied to consumers in Scotland so there could be impacts upon normal levels of fuel delivery.
The industry is assessing the possible impacts and working with Government, the Scottish Executive and other agencies, in line with well developed emergency response plans, to ensure that critical fuel supplies are maintained. In the meantime, consumers are urged to maintain their normal re-fuelling patterns in order to avoid unnecessary strain on fuel distribution.
The other eight oil refineries in the UK are fully operational and there are no problems with any other aspects of the manufacture or distribution of petroleum products to other parts of the UK.
Ends
Enquires to: Nick Vandervell or Chris Hunt, UKPIA Tel. 0207 269 7600
Notes to editors:
1. UKPIA represents the oil refining and marketing companies operating in the UK, which also own approximately 2,152 of the UK's 9,271 service stations.
2. UKPIA members own and operate the nine crude processing oil refineries in the UK.
3. Grangemouth refinery, situated on the Firth of Forth, is part of the INEOS group and was previously owned by BP up until December 2005. The refinery has a capacity to process 10 million tonnes of crude oil per year.
Petroleum product output approx 898,000 cubic metres:
Petrol 22%
Diesel 24%
Kerosene & jet fuel 13%
Gas oil 8%
Fuel oil 15%
LPG/petrochemical feedstocks 12%
Fuel gas/other 6%
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