Adminstrators win Coryton fuel refinery more time

The administrators of the Coryton fuel refinery have secured at least three more months of production at the Thames Estuary site.

The refinery supplies 20% of the South-East’s fuel and the collapse of its Swiss-owner Petroplus at the end of last month raised the spectre of fuel shortages for hauliers and motorists alike in the region.

However, Steven Pearson, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers which is handling the adminstration process for the refinery,  reveals Petroplus founder Marcel van Poecke’s AtlasInvest, Morgan Stanley Capital Group and KKR Asset Management have entered into a tolling agreement that will see crude oil continue to be delivered for now.

Pearson says: “I am delighted to have reached this arrangement. It is the culmination of constructive negotiations over many days and it creates vital stability at the refinery whilst we find a restructuring solution.”