ExxonMobil to close Fife ethylene plant within months, putting over 400 jobs at risk

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EXXONMOBIL plans to shut its ethylene plant at the Mossmorran complex in Fife, Scotland by February 2026, putting more than 400 jobs at risk.

Announcing the move yesterday, the US petrochemical giant partly blamed the UK’s “economic and policy environment” for its decision, saying it is “accelerating the exit of vital industries, domestic manufacturing and the high-value jobs they provide”.

The company said the closure will affect 179 directly employed workers and around 250 contractors and will also bring six four-year apprenticeships to an early end. The government said it is a “priority” to ensure the apprenticeships can continue elsewhere in local industry.

Contradicting Exxon’s official position, UK industry minister and IChemE Fellow Chris McDonald told parliament yesterday evening that the company’s chairman Paul Greenwood “assured” him the decision was not a result of government inaction. McDonald stressed: “It was a commercial decision made when the numbers simply did not add up.”

He added that Greenwood emphasised the ageing plant was "inefficient and in dire need of modernisation to be commercially viable for the future”, and that around US$1bn of investment was required to return it to profitability.

The announcement comes just weeks after ExxonMobil was fined £176,000 (US$231,000) for a week-long period of continuous flaring in 2019 caused by the outage of a boiler that powered the plant’s steam cracker. In 2023, around 200 contractors downed tools because safety alarms were not working properly, and in March this year the company was served an improvement notice by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after the regulator found corrosion in the warm drain header pipework.  

Another factor in Exxon’s decision, McDonald said, was the “sharp decline in ethane supply in the North Sea”. The company said that operations at the St Fergus gas terminal, which supplies ethane to Fife, will be unaffected.

McDonald said that government officials had met with the Exxon representatives every week since August, telling parliament they had “explored every possible opportunity to retain the site’s operations”. He said, however, that the state support Exxon required to rescue the plant was “beyond acceptable levels”.

In its statement, ExxonMobil said: “We understand and regret the impact this will have on our loyal and valued workforce, contractors and local communities. Our priorities are now to support our people through this challenging period, while ensuring continued safe operations through the end of production.”

ExxonMobil will carry out a full consultation with employees ahead of the closure and has told staff that up to 50 roles could be relocated to its Fawley refinery in Southampton, around 780 km from Mossmorran.

Chemical engineers affected by the closure have access to the IChemE redundancy support hub.

Blame games

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said ExxonMobil’s decision was “utterly disgraceful” and urged the company to “withdraw the closure threat and enter into meaningful negotiations with all key players to ensure the future of the plant and jobs”.

Industry body Offshore Energy UK (OEUK), however, blamed government policy. The group urged the government to replace the energy profits levy – a temporary tax introduced to target the “extraordinary profits” made by oil and gas companies after the war in Ukraine, and since both increased and extended – with a “permanent, profits-based mechanism” in next week’s budget.

OEUK CEO David Whitehouse said: “This is deeply sad news and yet another troubling sign of the wider industrial decline we are witnessing across the UK. We are sleepwalking into full-scale de-industrialisation…we should be building modern industrial Britain on the shoulders of our proud industries.”