UK's insolvent Lindsey oil refinery secures some crude supply to keep running for now
Britain's insolvent Lindsey oil refinery has secured some crude supplies to stave off immediate closure, the UK energy ministry said, but a source familiar with the situation said the agreement with supplier Glencore was limited.
Without a continued stream of crude oil, the refinery, near Britain's north-east coast, will have to stop running. The energy ministry did not respond to questions about how long the supply agreement might keep the 113,000 barrel per day refinery operating.
"An agreement has been reached to resume deliveries in and out of the Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery. The Official Receiver is ensuring continued safe operations at the site," a spokesperson for the department for Energy Security and Net Zero said.
"Stock levels are normal across the UK."
The government said on Monday that Lindsey and the parent company of its owner Prax had crashed into insolvency and that the refinery had been placed into the hands of an official receiver.
Consultancy Wood Mackenzie told Reuters on Friday the refinery faces shutdown within three weeks with the current 1.8 million barrels of crude it has in storage.
The energy ministry had no immediate response to the data and referred to its earlier statement.
Talks have taken place with Glencore, which held the crude oil supply contract to the site in northeastern England prior to the insolvency, about the future of deliveries.
A source familiar with the situation said on Friday that Glencore had reached a deal with the government to sell it the crude that was already in storage at the site. This does not include future supplies to the refinery.
Glencore declined to comment.
Britain is a net fuel importer. It imported an average of nearly 700,000 bpd of mainly jet fuel and diesel in 2024, exporting 370,000 bpd, a third of which was gasoline, according to Kpler data.
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