SNP ministers are “teeing up” investors to help fund a green future for Grangemouth.

Potential investors are being lined up to pump funding into Grangemouth's future as a green energy hub, Scotland's acting energy secretary has revealed.

Gillian Martin has also claimed Labour ministers finally giving the go-ahead for a crucial carbon capture project could have persuaded Petroineos not to close their Grangemouth oil refinery.

Ineos anounced the closure of its oil refinery in Grangemouth last September. Pic: Michael Gillen

The senior SNP minister confirmed to MSPs that the key Project Willow report, that will set out future options for Grangemouth, will be published by the end of the month - with efforts being made behind the scenes to be “teeing up potential investors”.

Ms Martin also vented the Scottish Government’s disappointment at none of £63m of funding announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves for sustainable aviation fuels being allocated to Scottish projects - insisting that the refinery at Grangemouth was “ripe to be transformed into a sustainable aviation hub”.

There has been anger over Petroineos handing out redundancy notices to workers ahead of the planned closure after The Scotsman revealed in September the refinery will close.

Speaking at Holyrood, Ms Martin warned the Labour UK government must “start doing what it said it would before the election and bring forward real investment to save Grangemouth and the jobs, businesses and livelihoods which depend on it”.

During the general election campaign, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar stated his party would "step in to save the jobs" at Grangemouth and would put “hundreds of millions of pounds behind it”.

Speaking to journalists at Holyrood, Mr Sarwar declined to acknowledge he had pledged his party would intervene and has not, repeatedly insisting the facility is run by a “privately-run company”.

Ms Martin told MSPs she has been “engaged in very good faith with the UK government” over the future of the refinery.

She added: “I am also, particularly distressed, that there were announcements last week from the Chancellor in the UK of sustainable aviation fuel money going to places that are not Grangemouth.

“Grangemouth refinery is ripe to be transformed into a sustainable aviation hub.”

But Conservative MSP, Stephen Kerr, stressed that the public will “not be impressed with the blame game”.

He added: “Both the Scottish and UK governments have failed to make any decisive intervention to support Grangemouth.”

Ms Martin confirmed that the £1.5m Project Willow report, being produced by consultants Earnest and Young on behalf of the UK and Scottish governments “will be available by the end of this month”.

Acting Energy Secretary Gillian Martin | Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

She added: “We are ensuring that both governments and Petroineos get sight of the full report. But more than that, we are teeing up potential investors to see the report as well.”

Greens MSP Gillian Mackay told Holyrood that it was “very clear that the UK government has abandoned the workers at Grangemouth” adding that “this has the potential to devastate the town I grew up in”.

She added: “Anything generated by Project Willow and others are potentially too far down the road to solve the immediate and urgent issue facing us.”

Ms Martin revealed that “a substantial amount of voluntary redundancies” have been applied for by workers at Grangemouth while there are “people that have been re-deployed across the site as well”.

She added: “Another thing that would make it far more investable would be track status being given by the UK government to carbon capture and storage. It would make it eminently more investible than it is right now. And it may even change the mind of the current owners.”

SNP 'teeing up' investors to fund a green future for Grangemouth as crunch study due

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