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.
For further information on oil refining click here
For information on INEOS click here
Ends
Enquiries:
Nick Vandervell +44 (0)20 7269 7604
Chris Hunt +44 (0)20 7269 7601
Notes to editors:
- 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.
- UKPIA members own and operate the nine crude processing oil refineries in the UK.
- 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% |