Phillips 66 – the US energy company that also owns the Jet filling-station brand – has announced it is purchasing assets and infrastructure from the beleaguered Lindsey Oil Refinery following the latter’s liquidation.
The fate of the Lincolnshire refinery has hung in the balance since the insolvency of its owner, State Oil Limited, a subsidiary of Prax. That fate is now sealed following Phillips 66’s announcement that while it will buy “key assets” from Lindsey, it has decided “to not restart standalone refinery operations” at the facility.
Instead, Phillips 66 will take “storage and other infrastructure assets” from Lindsey and integrate them into its own Humber Refinery, which is located less than a mile away from Lindsey.
The firm says Lindsey is “not viable in its current form” due to limitations of “scale, facilities, and capabilities”, but by integrating key assets, Humber’s output will be increased, leading to a “boost” in UK energy security, while supporting the “hundreds” of jobs Humber is home to. The firm added that the purchase is subject to “customary regulatory clearances”.
Assets included in the deal come from Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery Limited, Prax Storage Lindsey Limited, Prax Terminals Killingholme Limited, Prax Terminals Jarrow Limited, and Prax Downstream UK Limited. The 87 filling stations operated by Prax are unaffected by the deal as these were owned by a separate firm known as Prax Limited, which was believed to be profitable.
Paul Fursey, lead executive for Phillips 66 UK, says the deal “marks an important step” for the firm, adding that the company recognises and sympathises with “how difficult the closure of the site has been for the workforce and the local community”.
Fursey insists, though, that integrating utilisable assets from Lindsey at Humber represents “the best way forward to secure jobs, bolster the local economy, and encourage investment in the region”.
Towards the end of last year Phillips 66 revealed it was making a significant (and separate) investment in its Humber plant to enable production of “higher-quality gasoline” as part of its $2.4 billion (£1.79bn) capital budget for 2026.
Gordon Balmer, executive director of the Petrol Retailers Association, says he is “pleased with this outcome” as it will ”safeguard jobs, improve fuel supply and bolster energy resilience”.
The union Unite reacted to the news with criticism. General secretary Sharon Graham describes Lindsey as ”a critical piece of UK energy infrastructure”, and said ”Phillips 66 should not be allowed to just mothball the site and turn it into a glorified storage tank.”
Graham highlights that Lindsey is ”one of the few remaining oil refineries left in the UK” and that it is capable of ”supplying a quarter of the country’s diesel market”. She urged the government to work with Phillips 66 ”to ensure this sale retains and creates jobs and helps safeguard the nation’s energy security rather than harming it”, and added that net zero policies are “hurting workers”.
Gareth Allen, the Official Receiver appointed by the government to oversee Lindsey’s winding up says:
”Over the past six months, every effort has been made to secure a buyer and ensure a future for the site at Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery. As Official Receiver, my legal responsibility is to seek the best possible outcome for creditors when companies go into liquidation and this has been achieved.”
He adds: “We will now oversee the completion of the sale and the transfer of the companies’ assets to Phillips 66 Limited.”
