Fife Ethylene Plant (FEP) at Mossmorran has announced the appointment of a new plant manager.

The new manager is Martin Burrell who, after more than three decades working with ExxonMobil, has come full circle.

Fife is where it all began for Martin, who hails from Glasgow, started his career as an engineer at Mossmorran in 1985 when the plant was just starting to produce its first ethylene.

He is a chemical engineer and graduated from Heriot-Watt University.

Martin takes over the reins from Jacob McAlister who has reached the end of his assignment at FEP and is returning to Houston, Texas, to take up a new senior role with the company.

Through a career spanning 35 years with ExxonMobil, Martin has spent more than 20 years in front line operational and leadership roles at plants in Gravenchon in France and Fawley in Hampshire, as well as a further five year period at FEP.

In addition, Martin has held a number of senior commercial and business development roles in Brussels, London and the United States.

Martin said: “I am returning to where I began my career at an important time when we are investing significantly in the future of the plant.

“We are clear we need to further improve our operational reliability and are committed to doing that.

“I know the plant’s potential for strong reliability and I am confident that our £140m additional investment, which is due to begin in April, will move us firmly towards realising that.

“I am committed to safe and reliable operations and look forward to leading our dedicated and skilled team here at FEP. When I last worked at FEP, I remember our moto of ‘We care, because we live and work here too’ – this is as true now as it was then.

“Throughout our forthcoming work and looking to the future, I want to continue to work with our host communities to be as good a neighbour as possible.”