ScotGov under fire for 'cover-up' over Grangemouth refinery rescue

Now attempts to get the Scottish Government to produce evidence, through ministerial briefings or options papers that it set out alternatives to the closure of the refinery have been rebuffed by ministers.

The questions laid by Alba Party leader Kenny MacAskill also sought any information that the Scottish Government looked at a worker-led buyout or a state partnership between September 1, 2023 and  April 30, 2024 were also blocked.

Alba led a campaign to stop the closure of Grangemouth oil refinery (Image: Colin Mearns) He was told that evidence could not be divulged as it involved internal communications and would spark "substantial prejudice" to confidentiality of commercial or industrial information. They also said that it would reveal personal data of a third party.

Read More: How Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Grangemouth plant became a manufacturing icon

The Scottish Government, which says it had wanted the refinery nationalised, has said that despite 'best efforts' to avert closure, Petroineos 'alone took the decision to close the refinery and become a fuels import terminal'.

It is estimated that of more than 400 jobs at the refinery, there are currently 100 left.

The last oil was refined in April and the site is now going through a transition which will lead to demolition, with work expected to stretch into 2026.

Mr MacAskill, the former SNP cabinet secretary who has led a Save Grangemouth campaign,  said the refusal by the Scottish Government to produce a shred of their attempts to save the refinery was  "damning".

" It simply gives credence to a view that they did nothing and were not doing anything other than going through the motions," he said.

"We're entitled to know what they planned or plan to do.

"All of this is important to the community. It's not a state secret and if names need redacted then [so be it]. This just fuels fears that they've been happy to criticise but not to do anything themselves. Speak up and produce even redacted documentation or it sure looks like its an empty page.

"It looks like they're saying nothing because they did nothing. The workforce and the country are entitled to answers or entitled to assume it's just been political rhetoric. It's time the Scottish Government stopped grandstanding on Grangemouth and actually did something."

It comes as the SNP last month said that the Labour government had delivered a "kick in the teeth" to workers at Grangemouth after stepping in to save jobs at a steelworks south of the border while failing to act on the oil refinery.

The UK government took control of the UK’s third-largest steelworks as ministers try to protect 1,450 jobs after Liberty Steel’s operations in South Yorkshire were put into administration.

The high court in London August 21, ordered the winding up of Speciality Steel UK (SSUK), which has plants in Rotherham and Stocksbridge, despite the company’s request for more time to find new financial backers.

The company, previously part of the metals tycoon Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel group, was then put under the control of the government’s official receiver who appointed special managers from the advisory firm Teneo to run it.

Michelle Thomson MSP (Image: Andrew Milligan/ PA) Falkirk East MSP Michelle Thomson, who represents the Grangemouth site, accused the UK Government of putting English jobs ahead of Scottish ones.

And the SNP were fiercely critical when it emerged that UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves met Ineos boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe just three weeks before the Grangemouth refinery shut, but did not raise the future of the plant.

Details of the meeting — held behind closed doors — were uncovered last month following a months-long Freedom of Information (FOI) battle with the Treasury.

Sir Jim, part-owner of Manchester United, who is ranked seventh on the Sunday Times Rich List and is reportedly worth over £17 billion, was among several “external stakeholders” present at the meeting, understood to have taken place on Monday, April 8.

SNP energy spokesperson Graham Leadbitter said the episode demonstrated a lack of political will from the UK Government when it came to protecting Grangemouth, and called the revelations about the meeting "damning".

Mr MacAskill added: "The Scottish Government have rightly been critical of Labour over the Grangemouth closure but are shamefully doing nothing themselves.

"It's the grossest hypocrisy for the Scottish Government to berate Labour when they won't even answer a simple question about what they did or are doing themselves."

The refinery became a symbol of Scotland’s “black gold” and was central to the SNP’s 1970s push for independence, with the party arguing that North Sea oil would bring little benefit while the country stayed in the UK.

The Herald revealed in November, 2023 that bosses at the Petroineos plant in Grangemouth established almost a century ago, told staff that Scotland "simply won't be big enough to support a fuels refinery" due to falling demand.

Staff were told that a start had been made on projects that will see the Grangemouth plant transition from a refinery to potentially an imported fuels depot over the next five years.

Petroineos - the joint venture between Ineos Group and China’s state-backed PetroChina - which bought the refinery in 2005, said it would remain a refinery until spring 2025 and that jobs would remain safe in the short term.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Ministers have always been clear that the closure of the Grangemouth Refinery by Petroineos was premature and is detrimental to Scotland’s transition to net zero. We have continued to press the UK Government to leave no stone unturned in securing the site’s future as interventions of this magnitude would require action from the UK Government.

“We are investing £87 million in Grangemouth, including £25 million to expedite proposals in the Project Willow study. And, since 2021, we have also provided over £6 million in grant funding towards both Petroineos and INEOS’ respective transition projects. We are also funding the Falkirk Grangemouth Growth Deal, and Scottish Enterprise is doing targeted work in attracting new businesses into the Grangemouth industrial cluster, as well as advancing projects coming forward as a result of Project Willow.

“Our immediate priorities now, however, are to provide those who are losing their jobs with targeted skills support and we have recently expanded this skills support.."