Whitegate owners considering the sale of Ireland's only refinery

Whitegate Oil Refinery in Cork Harbour. Picture: Denis Scannell

The owners of the Whitegate Refinery in Cork Harbour are considering the sale of the vital asset.

Senior executives of Canadian firm Irving Oil were in Cork and Dublin this week, briefing staff, Government officials and local representatives on their future plans.

It is understood the company will go to the international market in the coming months to sound out potential buyers for the facility.

Whitegate is Ireland's only oil refinery, processing almost 75,000 barrels of crude oil each day and employing more than 200 people. It opened in 1959 and was acquired by Irving Oil in 2016.

In a statement to the Irish Examiner, Irving Oil said: "Like any company, we regularly review our portfolio to evaluate our business needs, and as part of this, we are assessing certain business segments and respective scenarios to understand how to best position our company for a strong future."

"We are proud of the critical role our Ireland businesses play in supporting energy security, and we remain committed to ensure our customers and communities are served safely and reliably," the company said.

Fine Gael TD for East Cork Noel McCarthy said he and his constituency colleagues were briefed on the plans by Irving Oil executives in recent days.

It was a positive meeting where they assured us there was no threat to the facility's future. 

"They are going to the international market to see if there are potential buyers," he said.

"They assured us that projects and investments tied to Whitegate are continuing as normal. We underlined how important Whitegate is to Ireland and to East Cork as the country's only refinery," he said.

Whitegate Refinery first opened in 1959, jointly owned by Shell, Texaco, BP and Esso. A State company, the Irish National Petroleum Corporation, took it over in 1986 and ran it until 2001, when it was sold to US company Tosco for £117m. Tosco was later swallowed up by bigger American companies, and the refinery ended up owned by Phillips 66 before Irving Oil acquired it in 2016.