{"id":406552,"date":"2026-02-04T01:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T01:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/406552\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T01:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T01:06:09","slug":"exxonmobil-to-close-major-uk-oil-refinery-after-more-than-40-years-of-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/406552\/","title":{"rendered":"ExxonMobil to close major UK oil refinery ‘after more than 40 years of operations’"},"content":{"rendered":"

ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, has announced it has permanently ended production at its plant in Fife, Scotland.<\/p>\n

In a blow to the UK economy, the oil giant’s Fife Ethylene Plant at Mossmorran will close, with Exxon blaming the financial sustainability of the site.<\/p>\n

In a statement earlier today, a spokesman for ExxonMobil said: \u201cAfter more than 40 years of operations, Fife Ethylene Plant permanently shut down production on February 2.<\/p>\n

“In the months ahead the plant will be fully decommissioned and made safe for dismantling. We anticipate this process to be completed by early 2028.”<\/p>\n

\"ExxonMobil<\/p>\n

A major oil giant has confirmed the closure of their site in Fife, Scotland<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY <\/p>\n

The US-based firm first announced its intention to close the Fife refinery back in November, in a move placing more than 400 jobs at risk.<\/p>\n

This latest news comes after a weekend of flaring at the facility involving one of the site’s operating units.<\/p>\n

It is understood that initial redundancies will see 70 receive redundancy packages at the end of April.<\/p>\n

Around 90 roles will be retained until the first quarter of 2028 for decommissioning and dismantling work, with 20 relocated to London or Southampton.<\/p>\n

\"Ed<\/p>\n

Ed Miliband has come under fire over his policies impacting the sector <\/p>\n

| PARLIAMENT<\/p>\n

Last November, Labour Industry Minister Chris McDonald gave an emergency statement to MPs in the House of Commons, outlining the Government’s reaction to the closure.<\/p>\n

He shared: “This decision is of course, extremely worrying news for those employed by Exxon as well as contractors who work at the plant.<\/p>\n

“This afternoon I spoke with Paul Greenwood, the chair of Exxon. He assured me that Exxon are not suggesting that this closure was due to a lack of action or will on behalf of the Government. It was a commercial decision made where the numbers simply didn\u2019t add up.”<\/p>\n

In December, the Government confirmed that it will invest \u00a3 120 million in Ineos\u2019 chemical factory in Grangemouth; however, Unite the Union took aim at Labour’s inaction over the Mossmorran site.<\/p>\n

\"Exxonmobil<\/p>\n

The Fife site experienced a flaring issue over the weekend <\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY <\/p>\n

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: \u201cThis is another nail in the coffin of the oil and gas industry, with jobs haemorrhaging on this Government\u2019s watch. <\/p>\n

“Unite has said repeatedly that the Government should not be letting go of one rope before it has hold of another. <\/p>\n

“Importing oil and gas while we offshore our carbon responsibilities is quite frankly an abdication of responsibility which makes us more vulnerable and betrays workers. <\/p>\n

“ExxonMobil\u2019s decision to close Mossmorran ahead of schedule is a disgrace and a betrayal of its workers. This is an enormously profitable multi-billion pound company and this unnecessary decision will have a devastating impact on the local community in Fife.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, has announced it has permanently ended production at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,2222,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-406552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-money","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}