Ineos buys fracking rights around Grangemouth and Firth of Fort
This article charts how Ineos has bought the rights to explore fracking for shale gas in a 127 square mile area around Grangemouth and the Firth of Forth. The news of Ineos’s entry into shale gas extraction came on a day of organised nationwide protest against companies involved in fracking, which saw 10 arrests at a Cuadrilla building in Blackpool and activists superglueing themselves to the doors of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in London. The company, which needs gas to fuel its chemical plants in Grangemouth and Runcorn, Cheshire, has made no secret of its desire to enter the fracking sector and has poached experts in shale gas exploration from around the world. While Ministers are keen to consider the potential of fracking (reduction in energy bills), many rural residents, communities, business and groups are campaigning against drilling, with the implications of the technique not fully understood.