Officials have set a two-week deadline to find a buyer for the ailing Prax Lindsey oil refinery amid growing doubts over the site’s future viability.
Sky News has learnt that potential buyers of the Lincolnshire site were contacted on Monday by the restructuring experts hired when the refinery’s parent, State Oil, collapsed into insolvency proceedings early last week.
Sources said that FTI Consulting, which was appointed special manager of the plant by the Official Receiver, had begun canvassing interest from third parties, with a two-week deadline said to have been “pencilled in but subject to revision”.
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Ministers have ordered an Insolvency Service probe into the conduct of the husband-and-wife team behind State Oil and the wider Prax Group, alleging they were misled about the company’s finances in the build-up to its insolvency.
The group is reported to owe the UK tax authorities in the region of £250m, with insiders saying that Sanjeev Kumar Soosaipillai and his wife Arani were in talks about a Time to Pay arrangement with HM Revenue & Customs prior to State Oil’s collapse.
Last Friday, Sky News revealed that the Official Receiver had reached a deal to continue buying crude oil from the commodities trading giant, Glencore.
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The deal provided a temporary lifeline to the Lindsey refinery, which employs more than 400 people.
The plant – one of only a handful of oil refineries still operating in the UK – supplies roughly 10% of the UK’s fuel.
Prax Group also spans interests in oilfield exploration and fuel retailing, which may also be sold by administrators at Teneo, although those assets are not insolvent.
A spokesperson for FTI Consulting declined to comment.
