EDINBURGH (Sputnik) – Earlier in the day, the company’s tanker left Philadelphia bound for Rafness in Norway, carrying 27,500 cubic meters of US shale gas, the first in a series of gas shipments that INEOS Chairman Jim Ratcliffe claims will "revitalise" European manufacturing.
"Shale gas economics has revitalised US manufacturing. When US shale gas arrives in Europe, it has the potential to do the same for European manufacturing," Ratcliffe said in a statement given to Sputnik.
INEOS owns one of the United Kingdom’s largest refineries at Grangemouth. It has secured shale gas exploration licenses for 700 square miles of Scotland. The company says it wants to invest 640 million pounds ($910 million) in fracking despite the Scottish government’s moratorium that bans exploratory work.