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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 26 April 2025
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Displaying 1225 contributions

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Economy and Fair Work Committee

Petroineos Grangemouth

Meeting date: 13 December 2023

Kevin Stewart

I am aware of the high sulphur content and the fact that crude from the North Sea basin goes elsewhere. There was talk of other refineries in north-west Europe earlier. However, maybe there could be investment in a new modernised refinery—if the UK Government was willing to do that—to take account of the high sulphur content of crude from the North Sea basin in order to get to the right end products, such as diesel, petrol and kerosene. I am no expert on this, but I have been told on many occasions by folks who are experts that refineries have a peak point in dealing with certain crudes. Maybe we could do that at Grangemouth as we move on.

Is it worth having that discussion with the UK Government, which has the primary responsibility, in order to ensure that we continue to have energy security and to stop the importing and reduce the carbon footprint?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Petroineos Grangemouth

Meeting date: 13 December 2023

Kevin Stewart

There was no demand in your original business plan to ensure that you were supplying the refinery.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Petroineos Grangemouth

Meeting date: 13 December 2023

Kevin Stewart

Just mix it all up, please.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Petroineos Grangemouth

Meeting date: 13 December 2023

Kevin Stewart

It is the importation aspect that gets me. We are talking a lot about energy security. Let us look at this in layman’s terms. We have the North Sea basin producing crude. You are refining that crude into various products.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Petroineos Grangemouth

Meeting date: 13 December 2023

Kevin Stewart

That is my point. Do we need to import as much crude, and cannot we utilise the North Sea basin and what it is producing to a greater degree? I recognise that there are different types of crude and all the rest of it—

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Petroineos Grangemouth

Meeting date: 13 December 2023

Kevin Stewart

I am sorry to interrupt, but one reason why I asked the question is that this is not just about Scotland. It is also about the set-up of the refineries in the rest of the UK and even in the Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp triangle that Petroineos talked about. What is the situation in the north-west of Europe at the moment? How old are the refineries and what are their capabilities?

We recognise that oil and gas will still have some part to play in the future—a significant part, in some instances—and it would be much better to deal with that here than to import from some of the more modern refineries in the middle east and China that have been mentioned, not only from the carbon footprint point of view, but also from the energy security point of view. We have to look at the issue holistically. I will ask the UK Government those questions when it comes to the committee.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Petroineos Grangemouth

Meeting date: 13 December 2023

Kevin Stewart

Yes, there is quite a lot.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Petroineos Grangemouth

Meeting date: 13 December 2023

Kevin Stewart

We have got a very short period of time. Summarise both very quickly, because I have more questions, as you would imagine.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Petroineos Grangemouth

Meeting date: 13 December 2023

Kevin Stewart

Why not manufacture SAF here?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Petroineos Grangemouth

Meeting date: 13 December 2023

Kevin Stewart

Just give us a brief summary. What bothers me about how you are doing things at the moment is that there may be a future impact on confidence in moving some of these projects forward.