The Prax Group administration is costing retailers dearly. Tom Dant, managing director of Gill Marsh Forecourts, says customer counts across his three sites are down around 40% and the company is losing thousands of pounds each day in shop sales.
And news that a deal has been done to supply crude oil to Prax’s Lindsey refinery does not help Dant, because his agreement was with Harvest Energy, which is part of the Prax Group.
“The only way it might help us is if we can source some fuel from there through a different fuel supplier. This takes time to set up. One supplier we talked to said it would be four weeks to set up an account.
“We’re just taking every day as it comes at the minute. Hopefully we’re getting some fuel midweek so that we can get semi back to normal.”
The BBC has reported that crude oil stocks already held at the Lindsey site have been bought with taxpayers’ money to allow the refinery to keep operating. Meanwhile, Reuters news agency reported that the government was in talks with commodities trader Glencore over the status of its supply and offtake contract with the refinery.
In a statement released on Friday, a spokesperson for DESNZ said: “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.
“The UK is well supplied with fuel – the site is right next door to one of the biggest and most efficient refineries in the country, and stock levels are normal across the UK.”
However, while talking to the BBC, Dant said: “There’s loads of garages around us that are now starting to run out because obviously the remaining refinery, Phillips 66, can’t just double their production overnight.”
Dant expects the supply problems to last for at least a fortnight but is hopeful that he can secure fuel supplies from Liverpool by the end of next week. “Obviously there’s a great deal of extra cost for us to get that, but at least we’ll have some products to sell,” he says.
Prax has been contacted for comment.
