Crude oil giant heads to the region

Oct 10 2007 By Andrew Mernin

A £2bn specialist refinery could be built on Teesside, it has been announced.

Up to 2,500 jobs will be created when the plant is built on the former ICI site at Wilton, near Redcar, while 400 more will be needed to run it.

Another 1,500 ancillary jobs could be created to support the sophisticated plant, which will turn low grade crude oil into high-quality diesel.

The Sonhoe Development Company is planning to build the plant over the next four years, subject to planning approval.

Managing director Mike True said the demand in Europe for low sulphur diesel was increasing, but existing refineries could not process lower grade crude into useful diesel.

For more on this story see nebusiness in today's Evening Gazette and tomorrow's Journal.