Fuels Industry UK CEO Warns Government Inaction Risks Energy Security Failure

London – 29 October 2025 – On the day of her appearance before the Energy Security and Net Zero (ESNZ) Select Committee, Elizabeth de Jong, CEO of Fuels Industry UK (FIUK), has issued a stark warning to the Government: the UK refining sector is beyond a tipping point, and unless immediate, tangible carbon leakage policy changes are made the country faces further refinery closures.

Since the beginning of the year, the UK has lost one third of its refineries, slashing the nation’s refining capacity to just four operating sites. Fuels Industry UK asserts this crisis is a direct consequence of the Government's failure to provide a level playing field with importers, subjecting domestic refiners to high UK carbon costs while allowing imported fuels from countries with lower or non-existent carbon pricing to undercut them.

“Today, I have a single, unavoidable message for the Government: we need warm words on the importance of the sector to be turned into decisive action that meaningfully address carbon leakage and protects the UK’s energy security” said Elizabeth de Jong.

“We have reached a critical juncture. The policy omissions that allowed Grangemouth and Lindsey to cease operations are still there - costing our surviving refineries every day and threatening the last of our ‘Made in Britain’ fuel supply. This is a failure of industrial strategy and a direct threat to our national resilience.”

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) Action Required

Carbon leakage policies – which should ensure UK refineries are not at a disadvantage due to the carbon prices paid under the UK Emissions Trading Scheme – need to be more effective for our sector. The urgent inclusion of petroleum products within the scope of the UK’s planned CBAM, which is currently set to ignore the sector is needed, with an interim scheme if it is delayed.

Fuels Industry UK has supplied the Treasury with a robust, workable methodology for calculating and applying CBAM to refined fuels, removing the last technical barrier to inclusion.

“We see no reason for the Treasury to exclude petroleum products from the CBAM,” Ms. de Jong continued. “By allowing higher-carbon imported fuels to bypass the costs paid by UK producers, the Government is allowing carbon leakage: exporting British jobs and pushing emissions overseas to less regulated parts of the world. This doesn't help Net Zero; it simply shifts the problem, making global emissions worse and our energy supply dangerously exposed.”

Fuels Industry UK says the Government must use this Select Committee inquiry as an immediate catalyst for change, delivering policy certainty and a competitive framework that underpins the future of UK manufacturing and energy security. Without it, the ongoing crisis will see the UK swap domestic resilience for an ever-increasing, volatile dependence on imports.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

• Fuels Industry UK represents the companies that manufacture and supply over 85% of the UK’s transport fuels, investing in sector-wide transformation to help the country reach net zero. That includes conventional and lower carbon alternative fuel suppliers alongside terminal and pipeline operators.
• Member companies have invested over £9 billion in the UK over the last ten years and employ 100,000 people across the UK sector in highly skilled, productive and well-paid jobs. The sector collected over £37 billion of fuel duty and VAT in 2024, with £11 billion of vital products exported globally.
• Treasury criteria for inclusion in a CBAM were cited in 2023 consultation response as: i) Inclusion in UK ETS ii) exposure to carbon leakage and iii) a feasible methodology for operation of a CBAM.

Contact: 

Jamie Baker, Director of External Relations, 0207 269 7605