Ineos set to become UK’s third largest shale gas company

Chemicals giant Ineos has today announced it has completed the deal with IGas to make it the UK’s third largest shale gas company.

The deal includes the acquisition of a 50% interest in seven IGas shale gas licences in north-west England.

It also consists of a 60% interest in three Petroleum Exploration & Development Licences (PEDL’s 145, 193 and EXL273) and a 50% interest in a further four licences.

In Scotland, Ineos will acquire IGas’ entire interest in the Grangemouth licence.

Ineos Upstream chief executive Gary Haywood said: “We are very pleased to have completed this deal and will now work to integrate these assets into the INEOS Upstream portfolio. These are first class assets that have the potential to yield significant quantities of gas in the future.

“Ineos believes that an indigenous shale gas industry will transform UK manufacturing, and that we can extract the gas safely and responsibly.”

The multinational chemicals company headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland, is paying IGas a cash sum of £30m and additionally committing to fund a two-phase work programme of up to £138m to develop the sites.