ExxonMobil blamed ‘deliberate’ Government policies for the closure of a plant in Scotland as it warned ‘the whole industrial base in the UK is at risk’ – including a second site in England.
As a row broke out over the decision to shut its chemicals plant in Mossmorran, company executive Paul Greenwood urged ministers to ‘wake up and see the damage their economic policies are doing’.
He said that while the oil giant has ‘absolute confidence’ in its Fawley site in Hampshire, it faces ‘the same challenges’ as the Mossmorran ethylene manufacturing plant in Fife, which is due to close in February next year.
The comments came as a row broke out at Prime Minister’s Questions, where Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch warned of the ‘real world consequences’ of Labour’s handling of the economy.
With more than 400 jobs at risk at Mossmorran, Keir Starmer said workers are going through a ‘difficult time’ but added that the plant was losing £1million a week and ‘every possible, reasonable avenue’ has been explored to keep the plant open.
Greenwood, however, said: ‘Deliberate Government policies are undermining us.’
At risk: ExxonMobil said its Fawley site in Hampshire faces ‘the same challenges’ as the Mossmorran ethylene plant in Fife (pictured), which is due to close in February next year
He told BBC’s Today: ‘You know what’s happening in the North Sea.
‘We’ve had windfall taxes, we’ve had a ban on production licences. I need cheap sources of abundant ethane and I do not have them, because the North Sea – because of Government policy – is declining rapidly and that ethane is increasingly high-price.
‘We paid £20million last year in CO2 taxes. That will double in the next four or five years.
‘My international competitors do not have those costs. I also have to deal with high energy costs.’
Greenwood, who is chairman of Esso UK at ExxonMobil, said it has ‘absolute confidence in backing’ the plant in Fawley near Southampton ‘for many years to come’.
But he added: ‘Fawley is a very strong asset but the Government needs to understand that the whole industrial base in the UK is at risk unless they wake up and see the damage that their economic policies are doing.’
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