The government has called for an investigation into the conduct of bosses at one of the UK’s largest oil refineries after it collapsed into administration on Monday, prompting concern about job losses and disruption to fuel supplies.
Sources familiar with the situation said that government officials had been growing increasingly fearful about the finances of State Oil, which owns the Prax Lindsey refinery in north Lincolnshire, since April.
The heavily lossmaking company assured ministers it was in good health during a meeting at the Prax site in May but is understood to have suddenly admitted in the past week that it was on the verge of insolvency.
The company, the only British business to own one of the UK’s five key refineries, is…