The UK competition control body has aimed its weapons at oil refineries, pointing out the fat margins they are doing as part of an investigation into why fuel prices are so high.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “found cause for concern over the growing gap between the price of crude oil when it enters refineries and the wholesale price when it leaves refineries such as petrol or diesel”.
The Ukrainian war has highlighted the lack of capacity in Europe, where Russia is a refining power. Rising demand for non-Russian oil has fueled prices elsewhere. Shell said this week that it expects its refining profits to rise to $ 1.2 billion (£ 1 billion) this quarter.
About a quarter of petrol and 57% of diesel used for road fuel in the UK in 2021 were imported through overseas refineries. Here are six of the largest domestic refineries.
Stanlow
This facility at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire directly employs 900 people and supplies 16% of all fuel for road transport. There have been concerns in the government about the state of its finances and documents submitted to Companies House show that the annual losses of the company behind Stanlow, Essar Oil (UK), deepened from $ 221 million to $ 321 million in 2021. Its auditors have raised concerns about the company’s health. Essar is owned by the Shashi and Ravi Ruia brothers, the Bombay magnates whose empire covers shipping, oil, metals and mining. Forbes estimated its wealth at $ 2.2 billion last year, and the Ruia mansion is said to be one of the five most expensive houses in Delhi.
Grangemouth
The refinery is located at the Firth of Forth in Grangemouth, Scotland, where refining has been carried out since 1919. About 2,000 people work on site, including 600 at the same refinery. It is owned by Petroineos, a joint venture formed in 2011 between Chinese state oil giant PetroChina and Ineos, part of the petrochemical empire of billionaire Jim Ratcliffe. Earlier this year, city sources said PetroChina is ready to sell its stake after losses grew to £ 89.9 million in 2020, from a loss of £ 26.1 million on 2019. Ratcliffe, worth just over £ 6bn according to the Sunday Times, moved. in tax-free Monaco in 2020. He made a £ 4.2bn bid to acquire Chelsea football club earlier this year, but was unsuccessful. The tycoon has invested his wealth in football clubs in Nice, near Monaco, and Lausanne in Switzerland. He also owns the fashion brand Belstaff and is creating a rival car for the Land Rover.
Humber
The North Lincolnshire refinery processes the crude supplied largely from the North Sea. It opened in 1968 and currently employs about 1,100 workers. It is owned by a subsidiary of ConocoPhillips, the American multinational based in Houston, Texas. Shares of the $ 112 billion giant have risen 45% over the past year and its profits have multiplied sixfold to $ 5.8 billion in the first three months of the year, more than $ 1 billion. dollars from the same period last year. Last month a large dividend of 46 cents per share was paid. ConocoPhillips is run by perpetual oil industry Ryan Lance, who is also a board member of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Lance, who grew up in Montana and began his career in Alaska’s oil fields, saw his payroll last year at 15%, but still earned $ 24 million, 133 times more than the average employee by ConocoPhillips.
Pembroke
The South Wales refinery has around 500 employees and handles 270,000 barrels of black material a day, converting crude into end products such as diesel, aircraft fuel and heating diesel. Valero Energy of Texas bought the operation from Chevron in 2011 with a £ 447 million deal. Valero is worth $ 43 billion and its shares have skyrocketed 35% as energy stocks have risen this year. In April, it told Wall Street that its quarterly refining margin had more than doubled to $ 3.2 billion over the previous year. In 2019, a $ 22 million payday caused CEO Joe Gorder to be on the annual report of shareholder advocacy group As You Sow of the “100 Most Overpaid CEOs” in the United States.
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Lindsey practice
In March 2021, French oil group Total sold the Prax Lindsey refinery north of Lincolnshire to Prax, a unit of a little-known Surrey-based company called State Oil, which has expanded rapidly. Its revenue multiplied almost tenfold between 2010 and 2020. The party that controls the company, Winston Soosaipillai, known as Sanjeev Kumar, has almost no public profile.
Fawley
The Fawley refinery, the largest in the UK, supplies one-sixth of all petrol to garage yards and one-fifth of all airline fuel used nationwide. Located in Hampshire, it has been owned by Esso, the trade name of ExxonMobil, for almost 100 years. The Texas-based multinational is worth $ 363 billion and is the largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, the company co-founded by U.S. first billionaire John D Rockefeller. Exxon made its highest profit in seven years last year, with $ 23 billion. The company paid executive director Darren Woods $ 23.6 million last year, up from $ 15.6 million in 2020. Woods also received a $ 3.1 million cash bonus. In May, Fawley’s subcontractors went on strike for pay.