ExxonMobil is to close its Mossmorran plastics plant in Scotland putting more than 400 jobs at risk.
The Fife Ethylene Plant (FEP) is one of Europe’s largest and most modern ethylene plants.
Mossmorran consists of two neighbouring facilities, the Fife Natural Gas Liquids plant operated by Shell, and the Fife Ethylene Plant operated by ExxonMobil.
Workers were told on Tuesday morning that ExxonMobil had been in talks with the UK Government, but they did not get what they needed to secure the future of the facility.
There are around 180 ExxonMobil staff, 200 contractors, and around 50 other workers at Mossmorran who could be affected.
The closure of the plant, which converts ethane into ethylene – a key raw material for plastics used in packaging, medical equipment, car parts, and more, will be phased.
In April, Unite the union warned of an “avalanche” of job losses at the site.
Altrad at Mossmorran announced at least 98 redundancies with the company claiming a downturn in work and cost savings being imposed by ExxonMobil.
Unite said further job losses were affecting other contractors, with Bilfinger issuing ten redundancy notices, and Kaefer cutting 55 jobs.
What is Mossmorran?
The complex consists of two neighbouring plants: the Fife Natural Gas Liquids (Fife NGL) plant operated by Shell UK, and the Fife Ethylene Plant (FEP) operated by ExxonMobil Chemical Limited.
The Shell plant receives natural gas liquids from the S. Fergus gas terminal in Aberdeen, which is separated into propane, ethane, butane and natural gasoline.
The ethane is sent to the adjoining ExxonMobil plant and the other products are sent off-site to the adjacent Avanti Gas Terminal and to Braefoot Bay Marine Terminal for export.
The gas plant has previously come under fire for unplanned flaring, which has caused significant disruption to the local community.
Operators say it is occasionally necessary to operate the plant safely, with the burning flare acting like a safety valve when the plant is not in normal processing.
In October, the ExxonMobil plant at Mossmorran was fined after a noise that sounded like a “jet engine” blared for six days, prompting 900 complaints from residents.
The closure of the plant, however, comes less than a year after oil refining operations at Grangemouth in Falkirk ended.
Petroineos, which ran the refinery, notified staff by email in April that all oil refining work had ended and that the first group of redundant workers were leaving plant – with 200 to depart by the end of June.
Grangemouth operators stated that they could no longer compete with larger, newer refineries worldwide and that the cost of maintaining the ageing refinery was too steep.
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