June 16, 2012:

MINISTERS have been urged to meet workers set to be made redundant at an oil refinery and explain why they are not using state aid to help save hundreds of jobs, including some on Teesside. Unite accused the Government of betraying workers at the Coryton oil refinery in Essex after a decision not to apply to the European Commission for permission to use state funds to keep it open while efforts continued to find a buyer. The plant in Essex, which supplies 20% of fuel in London and the South East, was plunged into administration earlier this year by its Swiss owner Petroplus.

The closure is likely to have an impact on staff at two other locations – an oil storage site in Teesside and a research and development site in Swansea. The Teesside operation employs 60 people. Unions, politicians and other campaigners have been pressing ministers to consider putting up cash to keep the refinery going until administrators can find a buyer as its closure would drain £100m from the economy. But ministers said overcapacity in the refining industry meant it would not be sustainable to provide government help.

Unite general secretary Len McLuskey said yesterday: “Last night, the Chancellor pledged to pump in at least £100 billion into the banking system to boost lending – which bankers should be doing anyway as that’s their job – in an attempt to build a financial firewall against the situation in Greece.  “Yet a similar request from Unite for state aid in the short-term to tide over Coryton until a viable buyer is found to take over the oil refinery is dismissed by ministers out of hand. This is simply not good enough.” A Government spokesman said: “Departments across Government have looked very carefully at whether or not state aid should be provided for Coryton.

“But we have come to the conclusion that the existing overcapacity in the refining industry and declining demand for petrol mean that it would not be sustainable.”

By Nebusiness.co.uk