Grangemouth rescue plan offers first glimmer of hope but achieves nothing

The long-awaited Grangemouth rescue plan, Project Willow, which examines the future of Scotland’s largest industrial site, has been published.

In almost two years of covering the closure of the oil refinery, this is the first time I have seen any glimmer of hope.

Project Willow has been welcomed by all sides, even workers who face losing their jobs over the next few months.

I spoke to Chris Hamilton who is a plant operator and Unite union official at the refinery and he told me that this shows how the plant “could and should have a bright future” but he accepts that “there is a lot to be done to keep Grangemouth working”.

Project Willow has been a long time coming. It was commissioned by refinery owners PetroIneos and paid for by the Scottish and UK Governments.

Scotland

Grangemouth rescue plan needs £3.5bn to create up to 1,100 jobs by 2040

Out of 300 projects examined, nine were identified as ‘credible’.

It looked at more than 300 technologies around the world, and cut it down to a short-list of nine which could work on the Grangemouth site.

In total they could create up to 1,100 jobs over the next 15 years but would require about £3.5bn of capital expenditure.

The £200m committed by the Prime Minister and the £25m by the First Minister doesn’t come close when you look at it like that, but if you zoom in on specific projects, you can see how it might.

The quickest and cheapest option identified is for anaerobic digestion creating bio-methane. It suggests that by 2028, £15-25m pounds of investment could create around ten jobs, increasing to 75 jobs with another £250-300m of capital expenditure.

That might not sound like a lot of jobs, but it is already happening to some extent.

The First Minister visited the Celtic Renewables plant in Grangemouth on Wednesday where they convert waste from the food and drink industries and farming into green chemicals.

The chief executive Mark Simmers was involved in Project Willow. He told me he is ready to expand on to the site of the closing refinery, doubling his workforce to 100.

Most of his existing staff have already come from oil, gas and chemical backgrounds.

There are other longer-term options in Project Willow. Unite the union has long favoured turning the existing refinery into a bio-refinery producing sustainable aviation fuel.

Wednesday’s report estimates that could cost up to £900m creating up to 120 jobs by 2032. Unite has always maintained that the cost on converting the existing plant would be much lower.

Project Willow will not keep Scotland’s only oil refinery open, it won’t save the 400 jobs; but it offers a way forward, redeveloping the site in Grangemouth for green industries creating the jobs for the future.

Project Willow itself achieves nothing though.

The UK and Scottish governments, Scottish Enterprise and PetroIneos must step up and attract the industries to create the new jobs.