Ineos calls for ‘workable’ shale gas fracking rules in UK

Multinational company Ineos has urged the UK Government to discontinue its ‘unworkable’ shale rules and gas fracking or risk pushing the country into an energy crisis.

Under the existing traffic light rule, shale operators are required to stop fracking for 18 hours if seismic activity reaches a magnitude of 0.5 or higher.

The company has called for an increase in the shale seismicity limit to a more ‘sensible’ level on the Richter scale.

To further drive its point, the company, which is a major shale gas licence acreage holder in the UK, stated that the current 0.5 level is more than 3,000 times lower than the 4.0 level adopted in the US.

Ineos also noted that shale development could be pursued to reduce the country’s dependence on imported gas.

In a statement, Ineos said: “The government is shutting down shale by the backdoor and is betting the future of our manufacturing industry on windmills and imported gas from countries which are potentially unstable.”

Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe said: “The government’s position is unworkable and unhelpful. They are playing politics with the future of the country.

“We have a non-existent energy strategy and are heading towards an energy crisis that will do long-term and irreparable damage to the economy, and the government needs to decide whether they are finally going to put the country first and develop a workable UK onshore gas industry.”

The firm cited the ‘success’ of the US shale industry, in particular, the Permian Basin, to make a case for shale as a significant source for gas that will transform the UK into a self-sufficient nation.

The petrochemical major also commented on the UK Government’s lack of sound energy policy, which does not involve a clear-cut nuclear strategy despite closure notices on eight of the nine nuclear plants.

The declining gas output from the North Sea was also highlighted in the company’s call for practical regulations in the shale industry.

Cuadrilla Resources, which became the only shale gas company to have fracked in the country, suffered multiple disruptions last year at its Preston New Road site in northwestern England as its operations caused tremors above the permitted level.