Refinery to close

[Des Taff Jenkins]

In Nov 54 I joined the Baron Kilmarnock at the start of a twelve month trip, we took the first load of crude oil from the Gulf to the new refinery at Kwinana in Freemantle. News on TV last night is that the refinery is to close, we don't have many refineries in Aus, soon we will be relying on overseas completely for our fuel. We are going backwards, where is Capt Cook?
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Des, we still have one down here in Melbourne, but it is only one of two left so we were told.

[j.sabourn]

Doing cruises on the Swan River Des, under the title of Captain Cook cruises for the visitors
JS

[Tony Taylor]

In Nov 54 I joined the Baron Kilmarnock at the start of a twelve month trip, we took the first load of crude oil from the Gulf to the new refinery at Kwinana in Freemantle. News on TV last night is that the refinery is to close, we don't have many refineries in Aus, soon we will be relying on overseas completely for our fuel. We are going backwards, where is Capt Cook?
Des

Is it still run by BP?,
They did own the refinery at Grangemouth but ran it down till it was a liability, then sold it and bought one in Germany that was in good condition.
I used to visit Grangemouth very regularly and saw and heard from the guys there, what exactly was going on. There is a saga behind it also, I just feel so sorry for the many decent hard working guys I knew on that site.

[James Curry]

Tony, that is BP for you, look how they treated the sea staff. Yes they all got a good pay out in the 80's but the pension was frozen. Yes a lot of them got there jobs back the next day. But they were no longer employed by BP. They did the same again 2009? decided to re flag the fleet under the IOM flag. realised they had cocked up as they became liable to pay the employers Class 1 NIC's. They moved the office from the IOM to Singapore thereby avoiding the employers portion of the class 1 NIC. Yes they dumped on the sea staff , I was paying Class 2 NIC I think it was about £600 a year. Now because I am IOM flagged vessels my NIC's went from £600 a year to £6000+. I asked them to send me to BP/CLISCO new building project. Interesting but the Chinese are dangerous. Took 3 new LNG carriers on sea trials & maiden voyages. Chinese were good to work for if not a little strange. Lived in Shanghia for 18 months. Paid a very generous living allowance while there and a delivery bonus. Some idiot on the project mentioned that we got a delivery bonus to BP who told CLISCO to stop paying it. CLISCO told BP it was not coming out of there end so mind your own business.
Anyway they have yet again sold the fleet and dumped most of the Brits. I think they have a few VLCC's (Indian Manned?) and a few new LNG carriers.