Former energy minister Michael Matheson held talks with Grangemouth operator Petroineos in 2022, in which he was told of the potential closure of the refinery in the face of market pressures.
In November 2023, the operator announced Scotland’s last remaining oil refinery at the Grangemouth site could cease operations as soon as 2025 following an 18-month process to transition to a fuel import terminal.
The move could put hundreds of jobs at risk.
Petroineos – a joint venture between PetroChina and Ineos – blamed market pressures and the energy transition for the decision.
However, documents released under a Freedom of Information request by the Sunday Mail suggest then energy minister Michael Matheson was informed of the possible closure at a meeting in February 2022.
Mr Matheson met Petroineos’ chief executive Wenjin Zhu and its head of legal and external affairs Iain Hardie in Glasgow. Records of the meeting show he was informed of “the current – and material – market and financial challenges impacting on the trading position for Petroineos”.
In a letter then sent to Mr Zhu, Matheson urged the company to pursue “a strategy which seeks to continue refining operations in some form” and asked that “options to secure productive refining capacity continue to be explored.”
According to the newspaper, Mr Matheson also updated then first minister Nicola Sturgeon in March 2022, detailing the potential closure of the site and its conversion to an oil terminal.
Further meetings were held between Mr Matheson and Mr Zhu and Mr Hardie, alongside other Petroineos staff, in April and August 2022 and March 2023.
© Supplied by Kami Thomson / DC ThThe account contrasts with what current Economy, Fair Work and Energy Secretary Neil Gray told a Holyrood committee last month.
In a December 13 meeting of the Economy and Fair Work Committee, Mr Gray said government was first made aware of the decision to cease refining operations “at the same time as the workforce”, though he acknowledged that Scottish ministers had been “in discussion with the joint venture for some time” around the future of the Grangemouth site.
A Scottish Government spokesman told the newspaper: “The Scottish Government was made aware in November 2023 of Petroineos’s decision to commence preparatory work on new import infrastructure at Finnart and Grangemouth on the same day as the workforce.
“The Scottish Government engages regularly with industry, including Petroineos, to discuss a wide range of potential future scenarios. It was always made clear to the company that the Scottish Government’s preference was for oil refining to continue under any future model at Grangemouth.”
Petroineos said: “As a piece of critical national infrastructure, we have regular meetings with representatives of both UK and Scottish governments, with discussions on various topics relevant to our refining operations at Grangemouth. We don’t comment on the specifics of these meetings.”
Appearing before the same committee last month, Mr Hardie said Petroineos had not made a final decision on when the refinery would close, and that operations continued to be “business as usual”.
Workers at the site are currently in discussions over pay and conditions, and could be offered upgraded redundancy terms and an above inflation pay rise to encourage them to stay on until 2025.
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