Weapons Factory Proposed to Replace Problematic Fife Ethylene Plant in Mossmorran

The ExxonMobil petrochemical plant in Mossmorran, which closed in February this year, could become a weapons factory, according to a proposal submitted to Fife Council last month.

TBG International, a Hampshire-based defence contractor directed by 25-year-old Ryan Hutchinson, submitted a pre-application screening request to Fife Council proposing to convert the defunct Fife Ethylene Plant in Mossmorran, near Cowdenbeath, into an "energetics manufacturing facility."

The proposal may relate to the British Government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) from November 2025, which invited the defence industry “to submit proposals to meet the Government’s requirements for bolstering munitions and energetics production in the UK.” 

The Ministry of Defence has said, however, that no new factory locations have been decided yet.

The GOV.UK website describes energetics as “substances that rapidly release large amounts of energy. In the defence industry, they are typically designed to undergo controlled, predictable reactions such as rapid combustion or detonation to produce gases, heat, pressure or light.”

“They include explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics and are essential components of conventional weapons including small arms, artillery, mortars, countermeasures, bombs, missiles of all sizes and the UK’s nuclear deterrent.”

The Fife Natural Gas Liquids Plant, run by Shell, is still operational and neighbours the old Ethylene Plant site.

TBG International’s website currently does not mention the Mossmorran site but announced this past April that the company “has commenced a feasibility study to assess the establishment of a substantial sovereign defence manufacturing facility in the United Kingdom.”

Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons