Petroineos: Sir Jim Ratcliffe-backed energy giant loses $250m
Petroineos, the energy trading company backed by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, lost $250m (£187.5m) in 2024 as it slumped into the red for the first time since 2020, it has been revealed.
The Jersey-based business has reported the pre-tax loss after posting a profit of $30m in 2023. The results for the previous financial year were only revealed in May.
According to Petroineos’ 2024 results, which have just been filed with Companies House, the firm’s revenue was also cut from $38.8m to $28.3m.
The accounts come after Petroineos announced the closure of its Grangemouth refinery, Scotland’s only oil such operation, after a century in operation.
In its latest set of results, the business blamed its losses on “depressed refining margins, refinery availability and a challenging year for asset trading and entrepreneurial trading coupled with one-off provisions related to Grangemouth refinery transition”.
The last time Petroineos made a pre-tax loss was the $383m it reported in 2020.
Petroineos is majority-controlled by the China National Petroleum Corporation, which is owned by the Chinese government, with the remaining shares controlled by Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos.
Earlier this year, Petroineos took the decision to suspend refining operations at Grangemouth, Scotland’s only oil refinery, after a century in operation.
The move, which was expected to result in a loss of more than 400 jobs, will result in the 1700-acre site transition into becoming an import terminal for finished fuels.
Petroineos laments ‘periods of price volatility’
A statement signed off by the board said: “In 2024, the global oil market faced a delicate balance between supply and demand, as geopolitical tensions and economic factors influenced market dynamics.
“With global demand growth believed to have been approximately +830,000 b/d, the recovery was uneven.
“China’s economic rebound was slower than expected, with oil demand hindered by the fast adoption of electric vehicles and the increased use of LNG [liquefied natural gas] in the heavy trucking sector.
“In contrast, oil production continued to rise with new production in key regions such as the USA, Brazil, Guyana and further increases in exports from sanctioned Iran.”
Petroineos said that this “led to periods of price volatility”.
The company added: “In addition to the supply-demand imbalance, the oil market in 2024 was shaped by a series of geopolitical developments.
“The market had to deal with the new development of Ukrainian attacks on Russian refining infrastructure.
“The Red Sea was effectively closed for most tanker traffic which contributed to uncertainty in global supply chains.
“Furthermore, multiple elections, not just that of the USA, generated questions of whether energy policy could shift in the near future.”
Sir Jim Ratcliffe issues industry warning
Petroineos was awarded £2.2m by the High Court over a claim that it brought against oil business Eninco in December 2024.
The claim was in respect of Eninco’s failure to take delivery and pay for fuel oil sales made by Petroineos to the company between 2023-24. Eninco has since entered administration.
Sir Jim ratcliffe has previously warned that Europe’s chemicals industry “faces extinction” and called on European Union leaders to ditch their carbon tax and increase tariffs to preserve it.
In an open letter published in February, the founder and owner of chemicals giant Ineos launched an excoriating assessment of the EU’s approach to the chemicals sector, which he said was in crisis.
Earlier this month, Sir Jim Ratcliffe called on Europe’s leaders to save the continent’s chemicals industry or risk losing millions of jobs.
The founder and chairman of Ineos urged politicians to make an “eleventh-hour intervention” at what he has described as a “moment of reckoning” for the industry.
He added that the industry is at a tipping point and can now only be saved through urgent action.
The billionaire, who is the seventh richest person in the UK with a wealth of £17bn, called for politicians to scrap the carbon tax which he said the industry “simply cannot afford”.
He also advocated for the removal of the green tax and levies from energy costs in Europe to make the market competitive and for tariff protection.
As well as cutting taxes and levies on industrial energy, the Ineos founder wants leaders to provide targeted relief and “well-designed carbon border measures to protect Europe’s market share from competitors using subsidies or low-regulated energy”.
He also wants the restoration of free allocations and a reduction in carbon pricing, to ‘provide immediate relief and buy time for investment into decarbonisation technologies’.