Oil company bosses will today attempt to avert a planned two-day strike that is set to hit fuel supplies across Scotland and the North of England.

Ineos, which runs the Grangemouth refinery, is holding last-ditch talks with union officials ahead of the threatened walkout by up to 1,200 workers on April 27 and 28, in a dispute over pensions.

The company has started to run down the plant and has given warnings of fuel shortages from Friday. It said that the strike will lead to the closure of the refinery, the largest in Scotland, for at least a month because of safety issues and could disrupt fuel supplies for weeks.

Officials from the Unite trade union are to meet Ineos representatives this afternoon at the London offices of Acas, the conciliation service.

Ineos is planning to delay the introduction of workers' contributions to the pension scheme so that these are phased in at one per cent a year over six years from April next year. The initial proposal was two per cent a year for three years.

Tom Crotty, the chief executive, said: “We believe these proposals represent a continuing, generous, final salary arrangement which is still an extremely attractive and competitive pension arrangement when comparing pension plans across all sectors in the UK.”

But sources at Unite said that the union would press for the proposals to be withdrawn before any fresh talks could be held.

Governments on both sides of the border have urged the two sides to reopen negotiations as soon as possible in a bid to avert the strike.

John Hutton, the Business Secretary, said he had started putting contingency plans into place to deal with the strike, adding that if the action went ahead the Government would do everything in its power to minimise disruption.

Under emergency legislation, Mr Hutton would be able to limit the amount of fuel motorists were able to buy or give priority to the emergency services. In 2000, the Government used the Energy Act 1976 to ensure delivery of fuel to essential services after protesters disrupted fuel supplies.

“At the moment we're concentrating on making sure the fuel companies are talking to each other," a spokeswoman for the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said. "But we’re monitoring the situation carefully and we do have these options."

Professor Gregor Gall, an expert in industrial relations at the University of Hertfordshire, said he “wouldn’t be too hopeful” of a quick resolution from the talks.

He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme that pressure from other sources may be required for the dispute to be resolved.

Prof Gall said Acas was “very good” at dealing with the issues involved. But he added: “I think the thing that will be the clincher is what pressure is brought to bear on both parties from outside the talks.

“At the moment, if the talks are left on their own with Acas’s involvement, then I think there will be continued deadlock.”

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