THE owner of the North Tees refinery was last night branded as deplorable for telling shareholders it is closing down the main part of the site before its North-East workforce – about 75 of whom now stand to lose their jobs.

The announcement from Petroplus that it would not restart its refinery – a key site in Teesside’s chemical cluster – comes as a blow to its 155 workers, who face an uncertain future.

The North Tees site will continue to operate as a terminal and storage facility, but it is thought that about 75 people will now lose their jobs.

Refining operations have been on hold at North Tees since March – a month after it was put up for sale – but in a statement to shareholders yesterday, Petroplus’s chief executive Jean-Paul Vettier said it would not be re-starting the process due to the economic climate and capital expenditure that would be needed.

The development comes as a further blow to Teesside’s chemical sector, which has suffered the recent closures of Invista and Elementis, impending closures of Dow and Croda and the administration and mothballing of Artenius.

Yesterday, Frank Cook, MP for Stockton North, who has led the campaign to safeguard the refinery’s future, spoke of his anger.

He said: “In only a few lines on their website, Petroplus effectively close down one of our most important chemical facilities.

“There is not even the decency of issuing a statement to its workforce, let alone the local community or people like myself who have been involved over a substantial period of time in trying to find a means of maintaining the plant as a refinery.

“It is quite deplorable that a company should act in this way.”

Bob Bolam, regional officer for the Unite union, said that about 75 people faced being made redundant.

He said: “This obviously comes as very bad news for those concerned, but at least the uncertainty has now been lifted.

“And also, at least there is still a facility here, albeit a terminal.

“We will now work to get the best possible deal for those people who are being forced out.”

The Swiss-owned company warned last month that it would not be selling the site, despite more than 100 expressions of interest being made, prompting speculation it may reduce the refinery to a terminal.

Although there are understood to have been at least two bidders, Petroplus rebuked the interest on what it said were commercial grounds.

Mr Cook hit out at the fact no bids had been looked into more thoroughly, and claimed attempts to sell the site were a charade.

“We were told months ago that the plant was up sale, then that there were no bidders, then when we discover that there are bidders it seems that Petroplus isn’t interested,”

he said.

“One is bound to wonder if they ever had any intention of allowing it to be sold as a refinery and what was the real reason for them going through this charade for the past nine months.”