Unite the union has said the oil and gas industry in Scotland is being hit by an ‘avalanche’ of job losses as hundreds of Grangemouth and Mossmorran based contractors face unemployment in the coming weeks.
The trade union highlighted that over 140 jobs with the contractor Altrad who provided operational support to the Petroineos oil refinery in Grangemouth face losing their job at the end of June.
The contractors undertook a number of critical support services at the refinery including access, thermal insulation and protective coatings. During peak activity at the refinery Altrad employed up to 300 workers.
Altrad at Mossmorran has announced at least 98 redundancies with the company claiming a downturn in work and cost savings being imposed by ExxonMobil. Further jobs losses are also occurring with other contractors, as Bilfinger has issued 10 redundancy notices, while Kaefer is cutting 55 jobs at Mossmorran.
The latest redundancies to hit the oil and gas industry follows the publication of Striking the Balance - Building a sustainable UK offshore energy workforce report by Robert Gordon University (RGU). The study warns that the UK oil and gas energy workforce could shrink by 400 jobs every two weeks for the next five years.
The UK’s oil and gas workforce is estimated to have declined by around 5,000 jobs, from 120,000 in 2023 to around 115,000 in 2024. RGU’s report further highlighted that there is likely to be ‘limited capacity’ for the offshore renewables sector to accommodate the number of oil and gas workers losing their jobs.
Sharon Graham Unite general secretary said: 'There is an avalanche of redundancies taking place across Scotland’s oil and gas industry. Theses job losses highlight what Unite has been saying about the unfolding jobs crisis in the oil and gas industry. The reality is that the UK and Scottish governments are failing to protect thousands of jobs. Government policy is also accelerating these huge losses without any credible jobs plan in place.'
An impact assessment by PWC found that the Grangemouth refinery made an economic contribution of £403.6m per annum, and almost 3,000 workers were reliant on the refinery’s operations.
In total there are nine possible projects identified by Project Willow for the site. However, under PetroIneos' proposals, most of these would not start for several years after the site had closed and jobs had been lost.
In contrast, Unite believes that many of the identified projects could be fast tracked and implemented now. There could be a rapid move to convert the existing refinery to Sustainable Aviation Fuel production. This includes starting with co-processing (mixing SAF and petroleum).
Unite has also highlighted that there are around 200 jobs at immediate risk on the Gryphon floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel due to a ‘premature’ decision taken by its operator TotalEnergies to accelerate a decommissioning plan.
Derek Thomson Unite Scottish secretary said: 'The historic end of oil refining at Grangemouth is now causing the widely predicted domino effect with hundreds of jobs being lost in the supply chain.
'Mossmorran contractor jobs are also at risk which will add to the thousands of jobs lost, and the thousands more to come on the horizon.
'“The job losses are unnecessary because there should be new energy projects underway like SAF production at Grangemouth. Scotland is in serious danger of losing thousands of highly skilled jobs while creating no new opportunities in greener industries for workers to transition into.'
Source: Unite
