A MAJOR competitor to the Grangemouth oil refinery in the north of England is getting ready to sell more fuel ahead of the Scottish site closing next year.
The Stanlow facility, near Liverpool, is reportedly planning to invest in its infrastructure, including terminals and storage capacity, to help cut logistics costs.
Bloomberg reported the head of the refinery, Deepak Maheshwari, said in an interview he wants to sell more fuel from Scotland across England once Grangemouth closes its doors as an oil refinery next year.
“We are trying to increase our footprint,” he said.
“It is important for us to provide customers with a proposition to have a national contract rather than a regional contract.”
Maheshwari plans to up the site's capacity so they can supply more fuel to the south of England in the coming year.
Owner of the Grangemouth oil refinery, Petroineos, said in November last year it would cease operations by 2025 and turn the site into a fuel import terminal.
Around 400 jobs are predicted to be lost when the site is closed despite the owners posting pre-tax annual profits of £107.4m in 2023.
Last week The Scottish Government’s Just Transition Commission published a report on the site's future.
It called for a rescue plan which sets out “specific metrics and indicators” measuring how well it is serving both the site itself and companies involved in its supply chain.
The commission’s report said that “retention of jobs and the local skills base on an intergenerational basis” must be a core aim of any transition programme for Grangemouth.
