Grangemouth: Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he has already had discussions on securing oil refinery jobs

Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he has already had discussions on saving jobs at Grangemouth.

Sir Keir came to Edinburgh for his first state visit as Prime Minister on Sunday, where he revealed he and his new energy secretary Ed Miliband have already started work on securing the future of the oil refinery. 

Grangemouth currently contains Scotland’s only oil refinery, employing around 500 people, and supplies petrol and diesel for the majority of forecourts in Scotland and the north of England.

However the site operators Petroineos, a joint venture between the Chinese state-owned oil company PetroChina and Ineos, which is run by billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, says it will continue to operate as an oil refinery until at least spring 2025.

At this point the site will be transformed into an oil import terminal only.

There are concerns this decision could lead to around 400 jobs at the site being lost.

Only around 100 members of staff would be needed at the new oil import terminal, plus a further 50 for decommissioning and demolition work, which would take around three years.

Concerns around energy security have also been raised, as this would leave Scotland as the only major oil producing nation in the world without its own oil refinery.

However during his visit to Edinburgh, alongside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, Sir Keir told journalists that preserving jobs at Grangemouth is a “real priority” for him as Prime Minister.

He said: “I’m very concerned about the situation at Grangemouth.

“I’m now Prime Minister and it’s my duty to do what I can to ensure that jobs are preserved and that the future is as good as I’m sure it can be.

“I won’t go into the details, but it is a real priority for me.”

He added Mr Miliband is already working on the details of the plan, alongside work on setting up a publicly-owned energy company called GB Energy, which Labour has promised will be headquartered in Scotland.

The party has not yet released details on whereabouts in Scotland this will be.

Sir Keir added: “I had a detailed conversation with Ed Miliband this morning, who is really quickly pulling people together on this issue as well as getting cracking with delivering GB Energy.

“He’s on it, and it was our first conversation this morning.”

He also said securing the future of Grangemouth will be one of the first tangible changes Scots will see from his new Labour government.

Also keen to get on with the job of securing Grangemouth’s future is the site’s new MP.

Labour’s Brian Leishman won the Alloa and Grangemouth seat with a 6,100 majority, and said he will be speaking to the Prime Minister and energy secretary about the issue “at the earliest possible opportunity”.

He said: “This is something I would like to bring up at the earliest opportunity this week.

“I am looking forward to coming up with a positive solution because it needs to happen.”