Closing refinery risks repeating mistakes of past

Campaigners warn decision to pull the plug flies in face of government's plan for just transition

- CHRIS MCCALL

THE closure of Scotland's last remaining oil refinery with the potential loss of 400 jobs flies in the face of the government's plans for a just transition, campaigners have warned.

Energy giant Petroineos announced on Wednesday it is preparing to end its refining operations at Grange mouth by the spring of 2025 and convert the site into an oil import terminal.

The plant, co-owned by Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos and Chinese state firm Petro China, provides most of the petrol and diesel sold at forecourts in Scotland and the north of England.

But Petroineos told workers on Tuesday the refinery could no longer expect to compete with larger and more Billionaire puts 400 jobs at ri efficient operations in the Middle East and Africa.

Scotland's Just Transition Commission has now warned the looming closure risks making the same mistakes of the industrial shutdowns of the 1970s and 80s when coal mines and steel mills were shuttered across the country.