More dismay for Coryton oil refinery

Coryton oil refinery has been dealt further dismay after the site failed to find a buyer.

A statement from PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed that there are likely to be hundreds of redundancies if operations are wound down. There is the possibility that the site will become a storage facility, which could reduce the amount of job losses, but nothing is set in stone as of yet.

Management of the UK-based refinery went into administration earlier this year, putting the future of the oil refinery in doubt. Coryton is the largest independent oil refinery in the UK, and its collapse could be a catalyst for further closures elsewhere in the country.

Current owners Petroplus ran into financial problems after it defaulted on $1.75 billion of senior notes and convertible bonds. At the start of the year, the chief executive said they would do all they could to avoid bankruptcy, but on the 24th of January 2012, Petroplus announced that they were filing for insolvency. Since then, the company have been unable to raise the funds to sustain the site which stood at around £625 million.

PwC recently stated: 'There are likely to be a substantial number of redundancies from within the 500-strong workforce over the next few months if operations are wound down...Any closure process is likely to take up to three months, during which time discussions regarding a possible sale will continue."

There are now desperate calls for buyers to step in to rescue the Essex refinery. If a buyer is not found immediately, the refinery is to stop all processes at the beginning of June. Reports have indicated that there are still some interest from bidders, however, most of these will buy with the intention of converting the refinery for a different use such as storage.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change stated: "We want to reassure people that there will not be any impact on fuel supply from this development. Continuing jetty operations at Coryton means that there should be no loss of supply through the terminal to London and the south-east."

Posted by Joseph Hutton