Lindsey oil refinery proprietor Prax falls into administration as ministers urged to intervene

[ad_1] One of many UK’s largest oil refineries – and the one huge one owned by a British firm – has collapsed into administration, prompting requires the federal government to intervene urgently to guard gasoline provides and jobs.

State Oil, which owns the Prax Lindsey refinery in north Lincolnshire, known as in directors on Monday, Sky Information reported first, prompting concern from the commerce union Unite.

The failure is more likely to trigger a headache for presidency officers, on condition that the corporate’s 5.4m tonne-a-year capability represents almost a tenth of the nationwide whole. About 180 individuals work at State Oil, and 440 extra are employed on the Prax Lindsey refinery, based on Sky.

State Oil is a part of the Prax Group, which is majority owned by the seldom-seen husband and spouse crew Winston and Arani Soosaipillai, who purchased the corporate from the French oil group Whole in 2021. An extra 20% is held by household trusts linked to them.

Prax Lindsey is the one one of many UK’s 5 main oil refineries to have a UK proprietor; the rest have US and Indian father or mother firms.

The group additionally has oilfield investments in Shetland and owns roughly 200 petrol stations within the UK underneath the Breeze and Harvest Power manufacturers, however these are exterior the insolvency course of.

The Metropolis consultancies FTI Consulting and Teneo have been appointed by the federal government’s official receiver to handle the Lindsey refinery and as administrator, respectively.

Sharon Graham, the final secretary of Unite, stated: “The Lindsey oil refinery is strategically essential, and the federal government should intervene instantly to guard staff and gasoline provides.

“Unite has consistently warned the federal government that its insurance policies have positioned the oil and trade on a cliff edge. It has didn't act and as an alternative put its fingers in its ears.

“The federal government wants a short-term technique to maintain Lindsey working and a sustainable long-term plan to totally shield all oil and fuel staff.”

The administrator of the corporate, Teneo, stated: “On 30 June 2025, the excessive court docket appointed the official receiver as liquidator [and] appointed particular managers from FTI Consulting LLP to help the liquidator in making certain the continued secure operation of the positioning.”

Joint administrator Clare Boardman, of Teneo, stated that each one choices can be thought of, together with a sale of Prax’s upstream enterprise and retail operations within the UK and Europe, all of which stay exterior insolvency.

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Prax’s upstream enterprise consists of the Lancaster oilfield within the British North Sea, a geologically complicated venture which has been in an early manufacturing part for years.

It's the second time in 4 years that Prax Lindsey’s monetary efficiency has grow to be a matter for presidency officers.

In 2021, the corporate stated it had swung from a £1.9m revenue to a £228m loss within the 12 months to February 2021, harm by the Covid pandemic crushing demand for gasoline.

That 12 months, the French oil firm Whole offered the refinery to Prax, a unit of a little-known outfit headquartered in Surrey known as State Oil, which has grown at meteoric tempo, its revenues surging almost tenfold between 2010 and 2020.

Its controlling occasion, Winston Soosaipillai, who goes by his center names of Sanjeev Kumar, isn't noticed in public or at trade occasions and has virtually no public profile.