SEVERE fuel shortages could hit northern England and Scotland for up to a month because workers at Grangemouth, Scotland’s only oil refinery, have voted to go on strike.

Petrol stations will run dry and aircraft may be unable to refuel from the end of April through much of June unless the dispute is resolved in the next few days.

Grangemouth’s 1,200 workers are said to be furious at plans to slash the value of their pension scheme and close the final salary pension scheme to new workers.

The strike is scheduled to last only two days, on April 27-28, but the lengthy procedures needed to shut down and restart the refinery mean the disruption to supplies will last much longer.

Ineos, the owners of Grangemouth, in Falkirk, have already begun shutting down production in anticipation of the walkout, and the ‘point of no return’, when fuel stops being produced, is understood to be on Friday.

“If the shutdown continues, Grangeworth will stop producing fuel and there will be shortages primarily in Scotland and Northern England,” a spokesman for the firm said.

“We produce a significant proportion of fuel that is sold in the region and the disruption will include airports, including Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as those in North England.

In recent years Ineos has become the world’s third largest chemical company with annual sales of more than £20 billion.

Based in the upmarket New Forest town of Lyndhurst, Hampshire, it was created by James Ratcliffe, who has been labelled Britain’s “most private billionaire”.

In the last decade he has borrowed billions of pounds to create a series of mergers and buy-outs that brought together companies formerly owned by ICI, BASF and BP under the Ineos banner. Ineos now comprises 19 chemical companies with 76 manufacturing facilities in 20 countries. In 2006 it recorded operating profits of £630m, however this figure which excludes interest payments on its borrowings.

Unite, the trade union organising the strike, claimed the effects would be felt throughout the country.

A spokesman said: “The refinery directly supplies to Scotland and northern England, and the strike will cause disruption for a month if it goes ahead. The demand from the empty petrol pumps in the North will suck supply from the middle and bottom of the country, causing disruption to the whole of the UK.

“Friday is the critical day - the point of no return.”

Ineos said the stoppage would also effectively close down a large proportion of North Sea oil production as well as some gas production which is routed through Grangemouth, and will have nowhere to go. Gas supplies should not be affected, they say.

Both sides say they want to resolve the dispute in the coming week, without the need for industrial action.

Ineos plan to cool the plant down, and remove oil and gas from the site, to make it safe during the strike. The subsequent warm-up could take weeks.

“The union is well aware that a 48-hour strike will cause fuel chaos in Scotland and the North of England for weeks on end,” said Tom Crotty, Ineos’ chief executive.

“This is a huge oil refinery and they know you can’t just turn it on and off like a tap.

“A month is our best guess but safety considerations will be at the forefront of everything we do. It is not our wish to suspend production at Grangemouth but Unite has given us no choice."

Unite claim the pension proposals are a penny-pinching measure that could more than halve the retirement income of workers at the refinery.

Their spokesman said Ineos would save £1.3m a year from the scheme, but made £3m profit a day.

Ineos rejected the claim as “nonsense”. “The union has jumped the gun in the middle of the consultation process. We have not even put our final offer on the table yet,” said the spokesman.

Times Recommends

• Minister in talks with Saudis to protect creditors
• Premier Inn hits back in £29-a-room row
• Bankers hit back at 'populist' bonus supertax