GRANGEMOUTH continuing as a refinery must be a Scottish Government red line. The key to all this is carbon capture. Why? Carbon capture is the get-out-of-jail card for the oil companies. Why? It can be used to reduce the carbon footprint of hydrocarbon fuels by using surplus electrical energy to produce hydrogen, that is then used to create e-fuels using the carbon captured and stored.
Currently the cost of e-fuels is about £4 a litre, so even at that high cost it would still be possible to add 10% to the hydrocarbon fuel mix without making the cost unreasonable. And as electricity costs fall or surpluses are allocated, that £4 cost is only going to reduce. That allows the oil and gas producers to argue that the carbon footprint from oil production and use is being reduced over time.
READ MORE: Grangemouth owners could earn £6m windfall when oil refinery closes
Petrol, diesel and aviation fuel “laced” with e-fuels (in a refinery), while keeping the cost reasonable and potentially boosted by government interventions, can provide the oil and gas companies with a sustainable and reasonably certain business model going forward.
Scotland is an oil-producing nation ideally positioned to capture and store carbon. Oil production platforms in the North Sea have long since reinjected surplus gas back into the reservoir during periods of low demand, to be then recovered during periods of high demand. To be in the position of capturing carbon offshore and onshore for use in the production of e-fuels puts Scotland in an enviable position. Its potential use at Grangemouth in the production of reduced-carbon-footprint hydrocarbon fuels is an opportunity of gargantuan proportions, and the required technology and resulting vast economic rewards are no secret.
With the closure of Scotland’s last refinery, the opportunity goes, and so does control over the fledgling e-fuel industry, and indeed control over the North Sea oil and gas industry.
However, despair not, England has six refineries and is already planning carbon capture. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that this will enable England to control Scotland’s oil and gas output even post-independence. It cannot be overstated how important it is for Scotland’s economy for Grangemouth’s refining function to be retained. A view not shared or perhaps fully understood by the Scottish Government.
READ MORE: The SNP can’t claim to be climate leaders without any action
Maybe it should go to a vote at the next meeting of the “Nations and Regions”. Remember, John, to use your one vote well!
One thing you can be certain of, there won’t be a Panorama investigation exposing how fundamentally deviously the Westminster government are behaving over this. We need strong and determined leadership to demand Grangemouth is saved and invested in, not some concerned muttering of how less than the sum of a lottery win is going to mitigate the effect on local businesses and communities.
How to turn an obvious gold-plated, once-in-a-generation opportunity into a disaster by being a government of sycophantic nodding donkeys – you just couldn’t make it up.
One final thought. Scotland already produces more electricity than it consumes. The surplus has to be used to recreate an industrial base to create products that can be stored and exported. It would appear there are indeed plans to use it to create an industrial base, only it’s not going to be in Scotland. Meanwhile our mealy-mouthed politicians try to persuade a rottweiler by acting like a poodle. Brilliant!
Robert McKay Burns
via email
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