Oil refinery jobs guaranteed until March

Workers at an under-threat oil refinery will be guaranteed employment until the end of March, the official receiver has said.

Lindsey Oil Refinery, in North Lincolnshire, was taken over by the receiver in June after its owner, Prax Group, went into administration.

About 250 employees remain at the site after 124 of their colleagues were made redundant at the end of October.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said bids were being assessed for a sale of the site and it understood a deal could be reached in the coming weeks.

Martin Vickers, the MP for Brigg and Immingham, raised questions about the future of the oil refinery sector in Parliament on Thursday.

He said Lindsey had a capacity "equivalent to around 35 per cent of British petrol consumption and 10 per cent of British diesel".

Vickers said he held talks with two consortia interested in maintaining Lindsey as a refinery, while the leader of North Lincolnshire Council had met a third.

He asked whether the government would support a deal that kept the refinery in tact.

Katie White, the climate minister, said the government was "taking further steps to secure the long-term future of the UK refining sector and to ensure a just transition".

A dedicated team had been established by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, working across government and with the industry, she added.

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