State Papers: Government was dubious about Saudi investors' 'sketchy' $1bn plan for Cork oil refinery

Files show that the group requested a formal letter from the Government in April 1994 in support of the project

The Saudi proposal included taking a 80% shareholding in the State-owned Irish National Petroleum Corporation (INPC), which operated the refinery in Whitegate. File Picture: Denis Scannell

The Government was dubious about the offer of a $1bn investment in the Whitegate oil refinery and Whiddy Island oil terminal in Cork from a group of Saudi investors in the mid-1990s because the plans were “sketchy", while their advisors showed a “lack of technical and business competence”. 

Files released by the National Archives under the 30-year rule show the Government favoured a smaller $70m investment offer just confined to the Whiddy facility from a UAE-based sheikh because it was more “businesslike”, although that too did not proceed.