Essex oil refinery could shed over 900 jobs

An Essex oil refinery could be set to cut up to 900 jobs from its plant.

The roles at Coryton oil refinery are thought to be in the balance because the company is bankrupt.

Its problems date back to January of this year, when its owner - the Swiss-based refiner Petroplus - filed for insolvency after defaulting on $1.75 billion (£1.1billion) of debt.

Steven Pearson, a PwC administrator looking after the refinery, told Reuters: "We are working on a number of options and in the interest of not destabilising anything we are not commenting at all."

The deadline for a rescue deal to be completed is midnight tonight (Match 16th) and so it remains to be seen whether or not workers will be facing redundancy.

However, there are not expected to be any announcements this week about what will happen to the plant in the long-term as negotiations between interested parties continue.