With the Scottish Energy Careers Festival coming up, we’re focusing on the opportunities that Scotland offers in the oil, gas and energy industries. We spoke to David East, the communications manager for the INEOS facility at Grangemouth, to get an insight into employment opportunities at the plant.
Most people know that Grangemouth operates as a refinery but can you tell us a little more about what that process actually involves?
The 1700-acre INEOS facility at Grangemouth comprises a refining business (a joint venture with Petrochina – Petroineos) as well as chemicals businesses. We take natural raw materials in the form of crude oil (feedstock for the refinery) and North Sea gases (feedstock for the petrochemicals assets) and convert them using a variety of processes into fuels, plastics and intermediates for other companies to process. Being Scotland’s only crude oil refinery, Petroineos employees manufacture the bulk of fuels supplied across Scotland – petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, heating oil, just as a few examples.
Our petrochemical assets provide intermediate chemicals that are used on site to manufacture plastics such as polypropylene and polyethylene. These are typically used for the manufacture of packaging (keeping food fresh for longer, protecting foodstuffs), bottles and cabling. Our chemicals are also used in a wide range of industrial sectors including the pharmaceutical industry, building, transport and communication. Indeed, the products we manufacture are used in everyday items by everyone.
The Grangemouth chemicals business is currently benefitting from an INEOS investment plan that will see one of the largest ethane storage tanks in Europe being built at the site and will see shale gas ethane being brought by ship into Europe from the US.
The ethane being imported from the US will supplement the dwindling supplies from the North Sea for Grangemouth (the traditional source of feedstock) and will also be used to feed a chemical manufacturing plant at Rafnes (in Norway), another of INEOS’ chemical manufacturing sites and the location of a similar ethane storage tank to the one being built at Grangemouth.
Can you tell us how many people the refinery employs directly?
In total, the INEOS/Petroineos Grangemouth complex employs around 1400 directly, with additional contractors employed by third parties at the site.
Do you have any estimate of how many jobs are indirectly reliant on the refinery?
Scottish Enterprise (Scottish Key Facts – May 2014) report there to be over 13,500 jobs directly associated with the Chemicals Industry in Scotland; with an estimated 70,000 people whose jobs depended on this sector. Extrapolated, for the Petroineos refining and INEOS petrochemical complex, there would be an estimated 7000 jobs indirectly associated with our continuing presence at Grangemouth [source document available from the Scottish Enterprise website].
As well as jobs relating to engineering and science, a site employing so many people must also be a source of a jobs across a wide number of skillsets – can you give us an insight into some of the roles at the plant that people might forget about?
By the very nature of our business we are predominately looking to fill roles that relate to science and engineering. However, given the size, scale and diversity of operations at our site, there are also opportunities for people with transferable skills. These include, Business and Project Management, Accounting, Procurement, Finance, Human Resources, Health and Safety specialists, to name but a few.
Does it feel at times like you’re competing with Aberdeen for staff in specialised fields or is Grangemouth’s role in the energy chain distinct enough to prevent this from being an issue?
Grangemouth and its surrounding area provides our employees with a great place to live and work. The size, scale and diversity of operations at the Grangemouth complex provides our employees with unique opportunities to develop skills and gain experiences that are very hard to find elsewhere. Most of our employees have spent all their working lives in the chemical or oil industry. We believe that Grangemouth is a refreshing place to work.
If you’re interested in pursuing a career in the oil, gas and energy industries then you won’t want to miss out on the chance to attend the Scottish Energy Careers Festival on Wednesday, September 17th in Glasgow. We’ve invited some of Scotland’s most prominent employers from the sector to meet the kind of ambitious and skilled candidates that are in such demand. If you’d like to be among that number then the event is free to attend but you must register for a place.
Cooling towers photography by Richard Webb and Grangemouth across the water photo by Russell, both used under Wikimedia creative commons agreement.
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