£1.1bn debt mountain puts refiner into administration

SWISS oil group Petroplus filed for insolvency yesterday, putting more than 2,000 jobs at refineries across Europe at risk as it defaulted on payments to its banks on some £1.1 billion of debt.

The firm, Europe’s biggest independent refiner by capacity, whose UK plant is on the Thames estuary at Coryton in Essex, has been on the brink of administration since its lenders restricted its credit late last year.

Analysts said the group had been hit by a mixture of high debt and squeezed profit margins in the oil refining sector, aggravated by its private equity‑backed, acquisition‑based business model.

Petroplus filed for insolvency in Switzerland, while PwC was appointed administrator of the UK business. The group also has operations in Belgium, France and Germany.

Coryton supplies 10 per cent of the UK fuels market and meets 20 per cent of the demand in the south-east of England. A spokesman for the UK Petroleum Industry Association (UKPIA) said: “We await further information upon how this may impact operations at Coryton. UKPIA will be working with the Department of Energy and Climate Change to try and ensure that any potential impacts upon supplies are minimised.”

Petroplus chief executive Jean‑Paul Vettier said: “We were ultimately not able to come to an agreement with our lenders to resolve these issues given the very tight and difficult European credit and refining markets.”

The company’s statement added: “The primary goal of Petroplus’s board of directors is to ensure that operations are safely shut down and to preserve value for all stakeholders.”

Petroplus earlier this month stopped production at its refineries in Belgium, France and Switzerland and halved output from Coryton and its German plant as it struggled to pay for crude oil.