Brian Leishman

UK Export Finance’s (UKEF’s) support for the INEOS Project One plant secures new export opportunities for the UK by enabling an overseas buyer to finance the purchase of goods, services and/or intangibles from UK suppliers.

As the UK’s export credit agency, UKEF’s mission is to advance prosperity by ensuring no viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance, doing that sustainably and at no net cost to the taxpayer.

Petroineos is a private company – a joint venture between PetroChina and INEOS. We have worked closely with the company and with the Scottish Government to understand the financial challenges facing the Grangemouth refinery. Petroineos’ shareholders have invested more than $1.2bn since 2011 to maintain the refinery’s safe operation, recording losses in excess of $775m during the same period. The Government pushed the company to continue refining for as long as possible however the company made clear that there was no viable commercial future for the refinery operation, which it will now convert to an import terminal.

Details of Ministers’ meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.

It is deeply disappointing to learn that Petroineos has confirmed its previous decision to close the oil refining operation at Grangemouth. All of my thoughts are with the workers and their families and the wider Grangemouth community.

The Grangemouth site will now convert to an import terminal. Imports are already part of the UK’s diverse and resilient energy mix. Since 2013, the UK has been a net importer of refined products, with imports accounting for 51% of UK demand for all petroleum products in 2023. Grangemouth refinery already imported almost all of its crude oil supply: it only received 13% of its crude oil supply from the North Sea via the Forties Pipeline in 2022.

Scotland already imports fuel via other sites, which is sold at competitive prices, so we do not expect imports via the Grangemouth site to impact road fuel prices in Scotland nor across the UK.

Grangemouth refinery is a private business owned by Petroineos. Petroineos stated that its shareholders have invested more than $1.2bn since 2011 to maintain the refinery’s safe operation, recording losses in excess of $775m during the same period. The company made clear that there was no viable commercial future for the refinery operation at Grangemouth.

Details of Ministers’ and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.

Published declarations include the purpose of the meeting and the names of any additional external organisations or individuals in attendance.

The import, acquisition, supply and delivery of Russian oil and oil products into the UK has been banned since 5 December 2022, with the last cargo of primary oils arriving from Russia in October 2022 and finished products in November 2022. (Energy Trends Table 3.14). All importers of oil and oil products into the UK must provide proof of origin to demonstrate that goods are not of Russian origin to enforcement authorities.

The Government is committed to ensuring that third countries are not used by Russia to evade sanctions and will continue to keep sanctions under review.

HMRC do not provide detailed costs related to policy changes. The costs given represent a high level cost estimate for the changes required to HMRC IT systems to deliver this policy change which follow a recognised standard methodology.

Excluding the 14 transfers of US Department of Defense owned F-35 components from RAF Marham, no F-35 components have been sent by the RAF from the UK to Israel between October 2023 and August 2024.

At the request of the US led F-35 Programme there were 14 transfers of F-35 components from RAF Marham to Israel between October 2023 and August 2024. The transferred components are the property of the US Department of Defence.

In keeping with the Government's announcement on arms exports in September, there have been no exports of F-35 parts direct to Israel via RAF Marham since the licensing suspension.

For operational security reasons and as a matter of policy, the Ministry of Defence will neither confirm, deny, nor comment on any foreign nations’ military aircraft movement or operations within UK airspace or UK overseas bases.