News – full story
Ruling puts 500 worker’s jobs at risk
16/10/2012
French court rejects bids for Petit-Couronne
November deadline looms for refinery workers
Adam Duckett
A FRENCH court in Rouen has today turned down two bids to buy the Petit-Couronne refinery from insolvent refiner Petroplus.
The commercial court rejected two bids from NetOil, based in Dubai, and another from Middle East businessman Roger Tamraz, Reuters reports. The court has not given a reason for the ruling but has reportedly given bidders until 5 November to rebid or the site will be sent into liquidation, ending some 500 jobs.
Petroplus filed for insolvency at the end of January after failing to renegotiate loan terms with its creditors. Its refineries in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland were sold to commodity traders and private investment groups in the first half of the year.
The Coryton refinery in the UK was sold in June to a consortium of energy companies, which plan to convert the site into an oil storage depot, shedding 90% of the operation’s 500 jobs. As the future of the Coryton site hung in the balance, union officials raised the point that the French government had provided £16m (US$24.6m) to save the Petit-Couronne refinery, and the UK government should do likewise.
A spokesman for the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change rejected the French tactics as a short-term fix, noting that overcapacity in the industry and falling demand for fuel meant it would be unsustainable to keep the site operating.
Under a deal with Shell, the Petit-Couronne refinery will continue to process oil until mid-December, regardless of the outcome of the 5 November deadline for offers.
