THE Hampshire company boss at the centre of Britain's latest fuel crisis has seen £1 billion wiped off his personal fortune in the past 12 months.
Jim Ratcliffe, whose firm Ineos owns the oil refinery where workers are in the middle of a two-day strike, has slipped from the tenth to 25th richest person in Britain.
However the reclusive tycoon, who lives on a £6m estate near Beaulieu, is still valued at £2.3bn.
His Lyndhurst-based firm, which he has built up over the past ten years, is now the third biggest chemical company in the world.
It owns the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland where workers went on strike yesterday over changes to their pensions.
The Sunday Times Rich List 2008 now ranks Mr Ratcliffe, 55, as the 25th richest person in Britain.
Mr Ratcliffe, pictured above, a chemical engineer-turned-financier and industrialist, owns two thirds of the Ineos group, which employs 17,000 people around the world. In 2007 he was ranked the tenth richest man, with an estimated £3.3bn fortune.
For more see today's Daily Echo
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