Murco oil refinery task force to respond to job cuts
Murco oil workers given training promise
(about 1 hour later)
New jobs for workers hit by the closure of a Pembrokeshire oil refinery will be the top priority for a task force set up to respond to the blow.
Workers losing their jobs with the closure of a Pembrokeshire oil refinery will be offered training to find jobs in other industries.
All but 60 of the 400 jobs at Murco in Milford Haven will go after a deal to sell the plant collapsed last week.
A task force has met to respond to the loss of 340 jobs at the Murco plant in Milford Haven after its planned sale collapsed.
Economy Minister Edwina Hart led the task force as it met in Cardiff on Tuesday to begin the search for new jobs and industry for the county.
Economy Minister Edwina Hart, who chaired the meeting, said the longer term aim was to regenerate the area.
European aid and a regeneration project have been suggested by politicians.
Upgrading the A40 in Pembrokeshire was one idea put forward, she said.
Skills
Only 60 jobs will remain at the Murco site as it is converted to a storage and distribution facility after a sale by its owners Murphy Oil to the Swiss-based Klesch Group was called off last week.
The Murco refinery will close and the site converted to a storage and distribution facility after a sale by its owners Murphy Oil to the Swiss-based Klesch Group was called off last Tuesday.
'Hard-working and talented'
Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb said the closure was a "hammer blow" to Pembrokeshire and has met workers affected in his role as their local MP.
The task force meeting in Cardiff on Tuesday included representatives of Murco, trades unions, the county council and local colleges.
He said the refinery supported hundreds more jobs in supply industries and local services.
Mrs Hart said the meeting was aimed at "fleshing out" the assistance the Welsh government could give the area.
The task force will look at ways of helping redundant Murco workers find other jobs, and of attracting new industry to Pembrokeshire.
She said Pembrokeshire's biggest asset was its people, who were "hard working and talented".
Wales Office Minister Alun Cairns has suggested a regeneration project similar to Newport Unlimited, set up after 1,300 people lost their jobs with the end of steel making at Llanwern.
"Our job as a government is to give them the tools to find more work," she said.
Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans said the UK government should seek European aid under the EU's Globalisation Adjustment Fund.
Labour AM Joyce Watson, whose mid and west Wales constituency covers the area, said wind energy was a growing industry which could use the skills of the Murco workforce.
