By Nick Sommerlad

Copyright mirror

One of Britain’s biggest oil refineries is at risk of a major explosion that could kill workers and devastate the local area, a trade union has warned. Lindsey Oil Refinery in north Lincolnshire was mothballed last month after its owner Prax Group went into administration in June, putting hundreds of jobs at risk. Now Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham has written to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband to “formally lay out our concerns about the retention of safety critical employees at the Lindsey Oil Refinery”. In a letter leaked to the Mirror , she told him: “Despite the reassurances you have received from the Official Receiver, Unite believes that unless further measures are put in place without delay, LOR (Lindsey Oil Refinery) is at serious risk of a major accident. “The potential for such a catastrophe must be avoided at all costs. The Government is responsible for protecting the lives of workers on site as well as the neighbouring P66 refinery and the local community. “Nobody needs reminding of the devastation that can be caused when things go wrong. We cannot afford to have a disaster like the BP Texas City refinery explosion in 2005, the Pembroke refinery explosion here in the UK in 2011, or something worse.” The Texas disaster resulted in 15 deaths and another 180 people injured. Four died in the Pembroke explosion. LOR is a “top tier” site under the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations and “at serious risk of being put into an unsafe and dangerous state”, the union believes. Unite warns that “safety critical staff” are leaving the refinery for “more secure employment”. They said that workers are preparing to leave without notice and the financial retention package being offered “while the site is wound down and a buyer for the site sought, is not sufficient to ensure the minimum safe staffing levels”. Graham added: “The lives that could be lost, livelihoods destroyed, the environmental and infrastructure damage that could be done to the site and everything around it is frightening. It is this danger that must be paramount when considering the resources that must be allocated to workers to ensure they stay.” Insolvency Service spokesperson said: “The Official Receiver’s first priority remains ensuring the safety of Lindsey oil refinery and its workers, and he is working closely with the company’s management and the Health and Safety Executive. He is in ongoing negotiations with a number of parties to progress bids with the objective of achieving a sale of the business.” The refinery is in the hands of the official receiver since the former owner went into administration after recording losses of about £75m over three years. The High Court has frozen £150m assets of the Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery owner, Winston Soosaipillai, who is being sued by the refinery’s parent company. The site supports 450 directly employed workers, along with 500 contract jobs and potentially thousands more in the supply chain. Sharon told Miliband that “it is imperative that all bids are prioritised on the basis of saving jobs, not simply maximising returns for creditors”. She said: “If LOR is allowed to close it would be the second British refinery to go in less than a year. It cannot be good for workers or for Britain that a vital piece of our critical nation infrastructure, making more than 20% of our diesel at the pumps, is left to go to the wall. “Importing fuel from India (probably made from Russian crude) on highly polluting tankers make a mockery of government policy.”