Falkirk MSP finds 'potential buyer' for Grangemouth oil refinery who would save all jobs

An SNP MSP has told STV News that she has found a potential buyer for Scotland’s last oil refinery who could save all 400 slated to be axed.

Michelle Thomson said a North American company, which she said she could not name after signing a non-disclosure agreement, has expressed interest in buying Grangemouth.

On Thursday morning, it was announced that it plans to cut all but around 75 jobs at the site and cease production in the second quarter of 2025.

Petroineos, which owns the site, said the plant continues to hemorrhage cash and can’t compete with new, bigger refineries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

It’s one of six oil refineries in the UK as well as the oldest and is the last one in Scotland, supplying around 65% of Scotland’s oil products.

Speaking to STV News after FMQs on Thursday afternoon, Thomson said she has found a buyer who may be interested in saving Grangemouth and all the jobs at risk.

Grangemouth is set to close in 2025 after suffering heavy losses throughout the last decade. iStock

The Falkirk East MSP said she hoped the international buyer could meet with John Swinney and Petroineos to discuss a potential deal.

She said: “I have had an approach by a person whom I believe to be serious with an appetite and a willingness to buy the Grangemouth refinery in its entirety including its jobs.

“I have had some brief, initial discussions and I believe this to be a serious proposition.

“However, there is clearly a great deal of work to be done and it is clearly not mine to sell.”

Thomson said the potential bid offered a “glimmer” of hope for the workers at the refinery and said she would do “all I can” to help save the jobs.

Asked why the company hasn’t put forward a proposal to buy Grangemouth over the last year, she said she could not say because she had signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Petroineos said the plant has lost hundreds of millions of pounds throughout the last decade.

It plans to turn the refinery into an import terminal which would require fewer jobs.

Energy secretary Gillian Martin told STV News she was “disappointed” to hear the news that Grangemouth is set to close.

“We are working very hard to ensure there is a future for the refinery,” she said.

The minister said she would work with the UK Government, trade unions and Petroineos to ensure workers at the site are protected.

Asked if she was confident jobs could be saved, she said: “That’s really a question for Petroineos.”

Swinney said the announcement from Petroineos on Thursday would create a “significant economic shock” as the Scottish and UK governments promised a joint £100m support package for Grangemouth.

In October 2023, the company announced its intention to transition the site to an import-only terminal for fuels.

Confirmation it will close by June next year comes the company said Grangemouth has been accruing average daily losses of 500,000 US dollars (£380,000) over the last week.

UK energy secretary Ed Miliband said the move is “deeply disappointing” – and the Unite union branded it an “act of industrial vandalism, pure and simple”.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the “dedicated workforce” at Grangemouth had been “let down by Petroineos and by the politicians in Westminster and Holyrood who have failed to guarantee production until alternative jobs are in place”.

A Petroineos spokesperson said: “It’s nearly a year since Petroineos first signalled its intention to stop refining at Grangemouth so there’s been plenty of time for potential buyers to express an interest and we would have engaged seriously with any credible proposition.

“We have contacted Michelle Thomson MSP today, with a view to understanding her position.”