Chemical Giant "Retreats" from Europe! ExxonMobil Announces Closure of Ethylene Plant in the United Kingdom (UK)

On November 19, Zhuangsu Shijie learned that ExxonMobil has confirmed it will permanently close its steam cracking facility in Mossmorran, UK, early next year. This move reflects the severe challenges faced by the European petrochemical industry, including high energy, raw material, and regulatory costs, weak demand, overcapacity, and competition from cheap imported products. Reports in September indicated that ExxonMobil planned to close the Mossmorran facility.

According to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights, the Mossmorran cracker known as the Fife Ethylene Plant (FEP) has an annual ethylene production capacity of 830,000 tons. This ethylene plant is adjacent to Shell PLC's Fife Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) facility, which supplies ethane feedstock to the cracker. The two companies share the output of this cracker on a 50:50 basis.

"After comprehensive consultation with our employees, we plan to close the Fife ethylene plant in February 2026," ExxonMobil stated in an email sent to Platts. "We considered various options for continuing production and tested the market for potential buyers, but the current economic and policy environment in the UK, coupled with market conditions, high supply costs, and efficiency issues at the plant, have rendered the facility no longer competitively viable."

ExxonMobil declined to comment on how many jobs would be lost due to the closure. However, the Financial Times reported that the closure would result in 200 ExxonMobil employees losing their jobs, and another 250 contractors would be affected.

"Theethylene factory has been a cornerstone of chemical production in the UK for 40 years, and its closure reflects the challenges of operating in the current policy environment—one that is accelerating the exit of key industries, domestic manufacturing, and the high-value jobs they provide from the market," the statement said. "We understand that this will impact our loyal and valuable employees, contractors, and the local community. Our current priority is to support our employees through this difficult time while ensuring safe operations continue until production ends."

Over the past 18 months, the European petrochemical industry has experienced an unprecedented wave of olefin capacity consolidation and divestment. Facing a prolonged downturn of weak market prospects and insufficient short-term optimism, since April 2024, petrochemical producers including ExxonMobil, Shell, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic), Dow, Versalis, and TotalEnergies have permanently closed or announced plans to close seven European cracking units by the end of 2027. Additionally, several companies have agreed to sell or are preparing to sell more units.

According to statistics from S&P Global Commodity Insights, excluding the Mossmorran facility, the integration of cracker units in Europe this time involves an ethylene rated capacity of approximately 4.5 million tons per year, a propylene capacity of 2.3 million tons per year, and a butadiene capacity of 430,000 tons per year.

The last European cracking unit.

In April 2024, ExxonMobil announced the permanent closure of its cracking facility in Port Jérôme Notre Dame de Gravenchon, France (with an annual capacity of 425,000 tons), along with related derivatives facilities and logistics infrastructure. The Mossmorran facility then became its last cracking plant in Europe.

The company stated at the time that the Gravenchon facility was continuously losing money, and that the cracker "lacked competitiveness in the market... The configuration of the steam cracker, its small scale compared to new facilities, high operating costs in Europe, and energy prices all contributed to its loss of competitiveness." The Gravenchon cracker began operations in 1967.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation previously shut down its cracker facility in Wilton, UK. After the closure of Mossmorran, Ineos's Grangemouth olefins plant will become the only remaining cracker facility in the UK.

"Both ExxonMobil and Shell are assessing their chemical asset portfolios. While this outcome is regrettable, it is unavoidable and represents yet another blow to the UK industry following Saudi Basic Industries Corporation's decision earlier this year to close the Wilton facility. A once-envied ethane cracking plant in Europe is now reaching its end, which undoubtedly serves as a painful indictment of UK natural gas prices and energy policy," said Andy Orszynski, head of ethylene and derivatives at S&P Global Commodity Insights.

At the same time, Shell stated in another statement sent to Platts Energy Information that the Fawley natural gas liquids (NGLs) plant "operates independently from the Fawley ethylene plant," and it is expected that the closure of the Wilton facility will not have a direct impact on Shell's Fawley NGLs business or the broader Shell chemicals business.