Siptu urges Whitegate sale caution

The Government has been called on to investigate the possibility of intervening in the proposed sale of the country’s only oil refinery at Whitegate, Cork.

The country’s largest trade union, Siptu, said the facility was strategically important to maintaining national oil reserves.

The American owners of the plant, Philips 66, have appointed Deutsche Bank to market and sell the refinery, which it has said is neither sophisticated nor competitive.