Well paid jobs are draining fast from the Chemical and Oil Industries

23rd November 2025

Mossmorran (Fife Ethylene Plant, ExxonMobil) - 179 direct staff + 250 contractors = 400-450 jobs lost.

Grangemouth refinery (Petroineos)
400 jobs lost when refining ends in 2025.

Other UK chemical plants
INEOS closed its last synthetic ethanol plant in 2025, costing several hundred jobs; overall, the UK has lost 10 large chemical complexes in the past 5 years.

North Sea oil & gas industry: Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) warns of 1,000 jobs lost per month until 2030 under current policy and tax regime.

Breakdown of Job Losses
Mossmorran (ExxonMobil, Fife)
Direct employees: 179

Contractors: ~250

Apprenticeships: 6 cut short

Total impact: 400-450 jobs at risk

Grangemouth Refinery (Petroineos)
Scotland's only oil refinery, closing in 2025.

Direct jobs lost
400 (from ~475 down to ~75 retained for import terminal operations).

Contractor jobs
Hundreds more affected, e.g. Altrad contractors (140-300 roles).

Other Chemical Plants
INEOS synthetic ethanol plant closure (2025): "several hundred jobs" lost.

Sector-wide trend
10 large chemical complexes shut in 5 years, thousands of jobs gone.

Net impact: Hundreds per site, thousands overall.

North Sea Oil & Gas Industry
Current workforce: ~30,000 direct + ~100,000 indirect jobs.

Monthly losses
OEUK and industry reports warn of 1,000 jobs lost per month under the Energy Profits Levy and ban on new developments.

Recent examples: Harbour Energy cut 250 jobs in Aberdeen (May 2025); Port of Aberdeen announced further redundancies.

Trend
Workers increasingly leaving for overseas projects (Norway, US, Middle East)

Implications
Scotland's industrial base
Mossmorran and Grangemouth closures alone give rise to 800 direct jobs lost, plus hundreds of contractors.

Chemical sector
Shrinking rapidly, with thousands of skilled roles disappearing.

North Sea oil & gas
At current pace, tens of thousands of jobs could vanish by 2030, unless policy shifts.

Mossmorran and Grangemouth closures together wipe out nearly 1,000 jobs, other chemical plants add hundreds more, and the North Sea oil & gas sector is bleeding ~1,000 jobs every month. This is not just industrial decline. It's a structural employment crisis for Scotland and the wider UK.