The Guardian: Ineos signals move into fracking

Ineos, the company at the centre of a dispute with unions at the Grangemouth plant in Scotland last year, is giving the strongest signal yet of its intention to move into the controversial area of fracking.

The privately controlled chemicals group said it was now "more or less likely" that it would apply for a licence to extract shale under the 14th round of onshore applications launched by the government last week.

Ineos has already hired a small team of shale experts, and the company is also busy investing at Grangemouth to handle large quantities of ethane gas derived from shale in North America.

"Britain needs gas as part of its new energy strategy, both as a bridge to renewables and as a backup to intermittent [wind] power generation. If you have gas, why not use your own? Doing something [in the field of the extraction of UK shale gas] would be more or less likely for us, but as to exactly what we do not know yet," Tom Crotty, an Ineos director, told the Guardian.
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