Abstract

"A Business History Of The Petrochemical Industry: BP Chemicals In Grangemouth, Scotland, Since 1950"

Riyoko Shibe, University of Glasgow (2018036s@student.gla.ac.uk)

In 1949, BP began a new petrochemical venture, BP Chemicals, making chemicals from crude oil to produce plastics and synthetics. BP selected Grangemouth, a BP oil refining town in Scotland, to home its new operations. Between 1950 and 1970, petrochemical infrastructure in Grangemouth grew rapidly, and recklessly, as BP Chemicals sought to maximise profitability and outstrip production of its competitors. Production output of all chemicals grew tenfold, whilst the town’s population and employment in chemicals almost doubled. By 1970, the sector was experiencing overcapacity, which worsened with 1970s energy crisis. BP Chemicals closed factories across the UK amid industry-wide capacity cutbacks. Grangemouth, though, was kept open because of its strategic positioning adjacent to major North Sea oil fields discovered in the 1970s and its distinct spatial agglomeration consisting of tightly bound refinery-petrochemical operations. The town thus experienced the contradictory situation of continued petrochemical investment amid a contracting industry nationwide.

Whilst BP Chemicals emerged successful from the energy crisis, largely due to the role of Grangemouth, the town nonetheless experienced major economic setback from the shocks of the 1970s. As the chemical market contracted, Scotland faced deindustrialisation and privatisation of its energy industries. Chemical employment in Grangemouth was shed, the town’s population declined steadily, and the site faced increasing accidents and health risks.

This paper presents a business history of BP Chemicals in Grangemouth, examining the rapid growth and later contraction of the petrochemical industry between 1950 and 2000. It interrogates factors including oil market forces, industrial life cycles of the sector, and government policies. It does this through archival study of government and union documents, and engagement with secondary literature on the petrochemical industry more broadly. Official perspectives are enhanced by oral history interviews with former Grangemouth petrochemical workers that capture the experience of working in an increasingly precarious sector.