Plant closure will shut off green bid
Future looks bleak for Scottish engineering
SCOTLAND will lose hundreds of highly skilled engineering apprenticeships if the Grangemouth oil refinery closes.
Industry experts have warned plans to wind down the site and turn it into an import depot will have a devastating impact on the country’s skills base and ability to create future jobs in new green energy technology.
Robert Buirds, a former Unite union official who previously chaired the Grangemouth Contractors Forum, said: “There are dozens of companies who rely on Grangemouth directly or in the supply chain to be able to offer hundreds of apprenticeships to young people in vital engineering fields.
“The site is effectively a national training base at which recruits every aid year, so closure would be a major blow to Scotland’s engineering skills, but this doesn’t seem to be a consideration for the government.
“We are talking ng about welder , platers, mechanics, electricians, all of the skills that will be central to Scotland’s ability to create quality jobs for the future, not just in traditional energy sectors like oil and gas, but also in renewables like wind and solar.
“People are not grasping just how devastating the closure of the oil refinery will be for our skill base and the fact that once these things are gone it is incredibly difficult to get them back.
“The training in high-skilled jobs that are available offshore, for example, are not taught offshore. The training is onshore, at places like Grangemouth, so closing the refinery will impact on the ability of Scottish workers to get well paid offshore jobs.”
Grangemouth is owned jointly by multi-billionaire tax exile Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos and a firm controlled by China’s government.
Petroineos announced its intention last year to axe production capacity, meaning North Sea oil will all need to be transported abroad for processing before being shipped back to Scotland.
Thousands of jobs could be lost and closure would have serious repercussions for energy security in the UK, while leaving Scotland as the world’s only major oil producer without refining capacity.
The Sunday Mail revealed in March the UK Government has failed to take action to secure a future for the massive plant near Falkirk – while providing a £ 600mil loan guarantee to Ineos for fa chemicals site in A Antwerp, Belgium.
East Lothian MP Kenny MacAskill said: “This is not just about securing offshore jobs in the oil and gas industry in the short term – it’s about Scotland’s industrial skill base and ability to compete for highquality engineering jobs for generations to come.
“We need both the Scottish and UK governments to step up and do whatever is necessary to save this key industrial asset.”
Ratcliffe is one of Britain’s richest men, with a fortune estimated at about £30billion.
He controls between 50 and 75 per cent of Ineos, with an annual turnover of more than £50billion. He bought a 27.7 per cent stake in Manchester United this year.
In September 2020, Ratcliffe of ficially changed his tax residence from Hampshire to Monaco, a move estimated to save him £4billion in tax.
The Chinese government bought its 50 per cent stake in Grangemouth in 2011.
A UK Government spokesman said: “We are in touch with the Scottish Government and the company to ensure the long term future of the site.”