EFFORTS are being made to financially restructure the beleaguered Swiss company Petroplus, which has put its Teesside oil storage site into administration along with other parts of its UK business.

Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham has met the administrators at PwC who are looking after the North Tees depot which employs 60 people, and urged customers and suppliers to support plans to keep it open.

“I understand that bondholders in the parent Petroplus organisation favour an option that would see the business’s finances restructured.

“But that will need co-operation from the company’s suppliers and customers,” he said.

“So I’d appeal to everyone associated with the business to get behind Petroplus, talk with the administrators, agree new financial arrangements and help us save not just an important plant but preserve the jobs of the people who rely on the company for their livelihood.”

The North Tees site was formerly a refinery, which Petroplus closed and converted into the oil storage site in November 2009.

Sister company Petroplus Refining and Marketing Limited, which owns the Coryton oil refinery in Essex employing 500 staff and 350 contractors, is also in administration.

Mr Cunningham also said he was hoping to meet with officials from Stockton Council and Tees Valley Unlimited to discuss the situation.

Zurich-based Petroplus made a net loss of £265m in the first nine months of last year and in December its banks removed £675m from its £1.29bn credit facility.