The house owners of Scotland’s solely oil refinery have rejected a US-led strategy a couple of attainable bid for it months earlier than its scheduled closure.
The strategy, which is known to have been made earlier this month, was rejected by Petroineos, which is 50%-owned by the petrochemicals empire based by the Manchester United FC shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
The consortium is known to comprise The Canal Group, which is reportedly growing a inexperienced vitality refinery in Texas, and Buying and selling Stack, a Center East-based commodities dealer.
Mr McKee spent almost 4 a long time with ConocoPhillips, one of many greatest vitality corporations within the US.
Sources near the state of affairs stated that Petroineos had rebuffed the supply with a view to consider a publicly introduced plan to rework the century-old plant right into a biofuels terminal.
They added that the character of the consortium’s strategy had raised questions on its entry to financing and experience in working an asset of this sort.
The Grangemouth refinery, which employs about 450 individuals, loses about £200m yearly.
Its different shareholder is the state-backed Chinese language vitality big PetroChina.
The positioning is because of shut subsequent 12 months.
An individual near the consortium insisted that its financing was sturdy and stated it could assess the feasibility of constructing a brand new refinery elsewhere within the space.
They added that the consortium had had “positive interactions” with commerce union officers, and believed that there was scope to quickly make Grangemouth’s refinery operations worthwhile.
On Monday, a spokesman for Petroineos stated: “Since the Petroineos joint venture was formed 13 years ago, our shareholders have invested nearly £1bn in the refinery, only to absorb losses of £600m.
“Final week, the refinery misplaced £385,000 on common every day and we anticipate to lose greater than £150m in whole in the course of the course of this 12 months.
“We have not received any credible or viable bids for the refinery.”
A spokesman for the consortium declined to remark.
