INEOS is billing it as Grangemouth’s Renaissance. Whatever you choose to call it, it is a remarkable turnaround for a site which was on the verge of extinction three years ago. But INEOS wants others to prosper too
THE huge gas storage tank and impressive new offices at Grangemouth have become a symbols of hope.
The tank – believed to be the largest of its kind in Europe – holds US ethane from shale, that has breathed new life into an INEOS site that was facing extinction three years ago.
The offices - bring many working at the site together under one roof for the first time ever.
But other doors are opening too.
“The future of Grangemouth is very bright,” said Julie Brown, senior director of life and chemical sciences, Scottish Enterprise, which is working with INEOS to find new companies interested in working at the site. “Other companies are clustering around INEOS.”
Success, it seems, really does not only breed success. But it also breeds confidence.
John McNally is CEO of INEOS O&P UK.
“We want to turn Grangemouth into the place for manufacturers,” he said. “The site has the potential to provide a base for new manufacturing enterprises that can use our world-class infrastructure and facilities to compete with the best in the world.”
The Roosevelt Institute in America believes that a nation’s wellbeing depends on the strength of its manufacturing.
“One of my great concerns about the UK economy is the collapse in manufacturing, which used to be the backbone of the UK economy,” said INEOS Chairman Jim Ratcliffe. “Saving Grangemouth is a brick in the wall to arresting that decline. But shale gas also has the ability to reverse that decline.”
To highlight its role as a force behind UK manufacturing, INEOS Shale attended the three-day Tory Party Conference in Birmingham in October to speak directly to Conservative activists and members about the benefits for manufacturing from a safe and wellregulated onshore shale gas industry in England.
“We know that shale gas production can be carried out safely and responsibly and we have seen how it has positively transformed communities in the US,” said Gary Haywood, CEO INEOS Shale. “It could create thousands of jobs here in the UK and bring substantial economic and societal benefits to the nation.”
In the meantime, INEOS wants to open up parts of its Grangemouth site – where shale gas is now a reality – to other industries seeking to take advantage of the existing power, steam, logistics and other services it can provide.
“Our vision for the future is a revitalised chemical site at Grangemouth and a virtuous circle of attracting new investment, creating jobs and providing Scotland with the vital raw materials that it needs to support its manufacturing sector,” said John.
INEOS recently finished building a four-storey office block that has enabled the 450 people who work for INEOS O&P to be based in the same building for the first time since it bought the site from BP in 2005.
The new building, though, is just one element of the innovative redevelopment of Grangemouth. Old plants and empty buildings are being demolished to create brownfield plots that can be used by other companies.