MSPs must stand up and “fight for Scotland” by opposing the closure of Grangemouth oil refinery, a union chief has said.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, will lead a rally to the Scottish Parliament this week to help save more than 400 high-skilled jobs by the Forth.
In an interview with the Record, the veteran trade unionist said there had until recently been “deafening silence” from politicians at Holyrood and Westminster regarding the future of Scotland’s last oil refinery.
Graham will travel to Edinburgh on Thursday in an attempt to drum up support for Unite’s plan for Grangemouth to be converted into a production facility for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
The union argues the rising global demand for SAF means it would secure a long-term economic future for the site.
Petroineos, which owns the refinery, claims it loses on average £385,000 per day and expects a £150 million loss this year.
The company intends to cease refining operations in spring next year and convert the site into a fuels import depot.
But Graham was critical of politicians who have agreed to the Petroineos plan without exploring alternatives.
She said: “The difficulty of the conversation around Grangemouth is, up until last week, we had Holyrood accepting closure, as well as Westminster accepting closure.
“They have effectively been like nodding dogs to what Petroineos has been telling them. The owners’ starting point is closure. That’s not where I’m starting from.
“Petroineos is half owned by the Chinese state, and they want to import Chinese fuel. They have no skin in the game when it comes to wanting this site to produce fuel. They want it to be an import terminal.
“There has, until recently, been deafening silence of those in Scotland to the closure of this refinery – but also from Westminster. If they can’t transition this refinery, with 400 jobs at stake, then I don’t think people are going to trust them on net zero.
“So my message to MSPs is: fight for Scotland, fight for the refinery. Back the Unite plan, which is we pause the closure, and we start from the premise of keeping Grangemouth open.”
Unite believes the refinery could be converted “relatively easily” to produce SAF – made from feedstocks such as cooking oil – within one to three years without job losses.
Graham pointed to examples of other refineries around the world such as P66 in California, which switched from crude oil to renewable feedstocks at a cost of one billion dollars.
She added: “We need to make sure Scotland is shouting loudly – screaming, roaring – to say we want an independent review of the site, as we believe it will show Grangemouth is absolutely a viable site for green technologies.
“The idea that the respective governments have just taken the easy option, of accepting the company’s word for it that it can’t be done, is gross negligence.”
Graham said “no one would be more happy than me” if Petroineos decided to invest in Grangemouth to make it a SAF-producing site.
“But none of the indicators are showing it,” she added. “If Westminster and Holyrood want to put their money where their mouth is, and back Scotland, they could take on the half of Petroineos owned by China, and become the investor of first resort, even temporarily.”
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