BY NEIL EISBERG
The European petrochemical industry has suffered yet another blow with the announcement of the closure of the ExxonMobil 830,000t/year ethylene cracker at Mossmorran in Fife, Scotland.
The company says it had been seeking a buyer for the facility without success. The plant will therefore shut in February 2026. The company has blamed its decision on UK Government policies and high costs.
In a statement, ExxonMobil said: ‘We considered various options to continue production and tested the market for a potential buyer, but the UK’s current economic and policy environment combined with market conditions, high supply costs and plant efficiency do not create a competitive future for the site.
‘FEP [Fife Ethylene Plant] has been a cornerstone of chemical production in the UK for 40 years, and its closure reflects the challenges of operating in a policy environment that is accelerating the exit of vital industries, domestic manufacturing and the high-value jobs they provide,’ it said.
A UK Government spokeswoman said: ‘This is, of course, a commercial decision for the company to take. The UK Government explored every reasonable avenue to support the site,’ and noted that this move comes on the heels of the company closing another chemical plant in France.
Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said she was ‘extremely disappointed’ by the ‘sudden’ announcement from ExxonMobil. ‘The news of the expected closure of the FEPlant and the loss of such high-value jobs is a very significant blow to Scotland’s economy,’ she said.
Located near Cowdenbeath, approximately 20km north of Edinburgh, the Mossmorran site comprises two main facilities. The Fife Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) plant, operated by Shell, which processes natural gas liquids extracted from the North Sea, separating them into propane, butane and ethane; and the Fife Ethylene Plant operated by ExxonMobil, which converts ethane into ethylene.
Shell does not expect any impact on its operations and will continue to supply natural gas to homes and businesses in the UK. The site, which opened in 1985, was based on the supply of North Sea feedstock.
The project was likened to the construction at the time of world-scale petrochemical plants in Saudi Arabia, based on domestic oil and gas. Petrochemicals produced in the Middle East had a major impact on exports from Europe.
The ExxonMobil closure follows the announcement of the closure of Sabic’s Olefins 6 ethylene cracker facility on Teesside in northeast England in June 2025. The facility had been offline since the end of 2020 and was due to be converted to run on gas feedstocks. The UK’s last remaining ethylene cracker, KG, located at Grangemouth, Scotland, and operated by Ineos, has been converted to use ethane from natural gas liquids piped from the North Sea.
ExxonMobil had already shut down its ethylene cracker at its Gravenchon site in Port-Jérôme-sur-Seine, Normandy, France in April 2024.
In addition, in April 2025 Petroineos, a JV between Ineos and PetroChina, announced the closure of Scotland’s only oil refinery at Grangemouth on the south bank of the Firth of Forth, near Edinburgh. It was the UK’s oldest oil refinery, dating back to 1924. The site is scheduled to become an import terminal for finished fuels.
Meanwhile, however, Ineos is investing €250m, supported by the French Government, to regenerate and modernise its Lavera site, which includes a Petroineos refinery supplying naphtha to a 720,00t/year ethylene cracker. The investment is designed to improve reliability, boost efficiency and reduce emissions.
Jim Ratcliffe, Chairman of Ineos, has been a major critic of industrial policy in the UK and EU, which he believes has eroded the competitiveness of the European chemical industry (C&I, 89, 11, 5).
Ratcliffe, however, praised the French Government: ‘France is showing real industrial leadership. The Government understands that without a strong manufacturing base, Europe will falter,’ he said.
‘Ineos is investing in Lavera because we believe in the site, its people and its future but Europe must wake up. High energy prices, over-regulation and punitive carbon costs are destroying its industrial backbone. If politicians want jobs, investment and energy security, they must create the conditions for industry to compete. It is as simple as that.’
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