Lindsey Oil Refinery, UK insolvency proceedings
The government's insolvency services announced on Monday that Britain's Lindsey refinery had begun insolvency procedures, raising the possibility of it closing weeks after Grangemouth stopped processing oil.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Lindsey, one of Britain's six remaining oil refineries, is set to close, increasing Britain's dependence on fuel imports.
According to its website, Prax has a capacity of 113,000 barrels a day. The government placed Prax Storage Lindsey and Prax Terminals Killingholme under judicial winding up orders.
It added that there will be a probe into the causes of the failure of the companies and the conduct and current and former directors.
FTI Consulting was appointed special manager for the companies and is responsible for liquidating them. The government announced this on its website.
Michael Shanks, the Energy Minister, said that Prax financial reports revealed losses at the Lindsey Refinery of approximately 75 million pounds (103 million dollars) between Prax purchasing it from TotalEnergies 2021 to February 2024.
He said that Prax did not respond adequately to repeated government requests about the losses. This left the government unable assess Lindsey’s financial viability.
Prax, headed by Sanjeev Soosaipillai as Chairman and CEO, was not available for immediate comment.
Teneo, a management consultancy, announced earlier that it was appointed administrator of State Oil Limited (parent group of Prax).
Teneo said that staff at Lindsey are currently being paid and remain in their current positions.
Clare Boardman of Teneo said that the State Oil joint administrator would consider all options, including selling Prax's retail business in Britain and Europe and upstream operations. All of these remain outside insolvency.
The Lancaster oilfield, located in the British North Sea and a complex geological project that has been in its early production phase for many years, is the upstream business of Prax.
The company runs around 250 retail fuel sites in Britain, including TotalEnergies-branded stations, in addition to petrol stations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark.
(source: Reuters)
