Grangemouth refinery restart seen possible

Officials of Ineos, which has idled a large refining-petrochemical complex at Grangemouth, Scotland, in a labor dispute, said they’ll consider reopening the 200,000-b/d refinery if the threat of a strike subsides, according to UK press reports (OGJ Online, Oct. 22, 2013).

Ineos said in a statement, reported by BBC, that shareholders decided to close the complex after labor-union officials rejected changes the company considered necessary to keep the integrated facility in business.

The Grangemouth refinery receives feedstock from BP PLC’s nearby Kinneil Terminal, part of the Forties system, and from the Finnart Ocean Terminal 90 km to the west.

Units at the petrochemical plant include two crackers able to produce a total of 1 million tonnes/year of ethylene. One of the units can crack gas and light distillate feedstocks, and the other is a gas cracker fed mainly ethane and propane.