Ratcliffe splashes cash after tax exile revelation
ENERGY tycoon Jim Ratcliffe yesterday unveiled a £1billion investment in chemical and oil industries that will secure thousands of jobs in Scotland.
His firm, Ineos, will spend £500million to prolong the life of the Forties Pipeline System (FPS), which brings 40 per cent of UK North Sea crude oil and natural gas ashore.
It will spend £350million to replace a 40-year-old power station with a steam and power plant at its oil refinery at Grangemouth, and invest £150million in a new petrochemical plant in Hull.
Ineos said the investment would secure 3000 jobs directly at Grangemouth and another 15,000 indirectly.
Ratcliffe, an ardent Brexiteer, trumpeted his spending spree days after it emerged he plans to quit Britain to live as a tax exile in Monaco in a move that could save him £4billion.
Britain’s richest man, who was brought up in a council house in Lancashire, said: “At an uncertain moment for the country, Ineos has confidence in its businesses and is committed to BY CHARLIE GALL c.gall@dailyrecord.co.uk continue investing in manufacturing and high-skilled jobs in the UK.”
Ineos pledged to continue Grangemouth’s renaissance as “a worldclass petrochemicals site while supporting the refinery, FPS and wider UK economy”.
Ratcliffe, its founder and chairman, said: “These investments will ensure that our UK assets continue to be world-class for many years to come.”
Anti-union boss Ratcliffe, 66, took control of the Forties pipeline from BP in a £200million deal two years ago.
Opened in 1975, the FPS transports up to 600,000 barrels of North Sea oil ashore for refining each day.
The £500million investment will transform the asset, extending its life by at least 20 years.
The pipeline was shut down for several weeks in December 2017 after a leak was discovered near Netherley, Aberdeenshire.
Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Dr Richard Dixon said: “Ineos should be helping transform Grangemouth into a centre of zero-carbon industry.”