A commercial court on Tuesday decided to end the near 85-year-old saga of a troubled French refinery by rejecting final bids to save it, saying that the proposed business plans were simply not strong enough. "Unfortunately, the investors have not been able to eliminate all the ambiguities and doubts in the offers. As a consequence, the court had no choice but to reject the offers presented today," works committee lawyer Jean-Pierre Valentin told reporters. The Petit-Couronne refinery said in a statement that lay-offs of the 470 staff would start "in the coming days".

The European oil refining industry is in deep crisis and governments should brace for more problems, a top French oil industry lobbyist said on Wednesday as France scrambled to find a buyer for a site faced with closure. "European refineries are going to continue to suffer, it is something that leaders should understand," said Jean-Louis Schilansky, head of France's UFIP oil business lobby at a news conference. The stark warning came as a French administrators began considering five offers to save a bankrupt oil refinery northwest of Paris from closure.

A bankrupt oil refinery northwest of Paris has attracted five offers, with the two most serious bids coming from Egypt and Switzerland, the French ministry of industrial regeneration said on Tuesday as the Petroplus site that employs 470 people focused French anxiety over plant closures. "Five offers were officially registered with the court administrator. Industrial Regeneration Minister Arnaud Montebourg considers that two seem serious and financed," a statement said. "They are the Swiss investor Terrae and the Egyptian power company Arabiyya lel Istithmaraat," it added.