Ineos acquires IGas shale sites
10 Mar 2015
Ineos has today announced a deal to acquire a 50% interest in seven IGas shale gas licences in the North West of England.
In addition to the acquisition of these licences in the Bowland Shale, the chemicals manufacturer has also agreed to buy a 20% interest in two IGas sites in the East Midlands and acquire IGas’ shares in the Grangemouth shale licence, giving Ineos 100% ownership of the Scottish site.
Ineos believes that an indigenous shale gas industry will transform UK manufacturing
Ineos Upstream CEO Gary Haywood
Today’s deal makes Ineos the UK’s third largest shale gas developer behind IGas and Cuadrilla.
“This is a great opportunity to acquire some first class assets that have the potential to yield significant quantities of gas in the future,” said Ineos Upstream chief executive Gary Haywood.
“Ineos believes that an indigenous shale gas industry will transform UK manufacturing, and that we can extract the gas safely and responsibly. Ineos’s scale, asset position across the UK, US shale gas expertise, and our expertise in managing oil and gas facilities will be a great match with IGas’s existing onshore asset base, and significant exploration and production capability”.
Ineos is paying IGas a cash sum of £30 million and additionally committing to fund a two-phase work programme of up to £138 million to develop the sites. IGas will reimburse its share of the work programme to Ineos once the sites enter commercial production.
