Ineos, which has recently gotten into gas in a big way, recently secured 21 new shale gas licences in the old mining heartlands of the North West, North Yorkshire and the East Midlands in the fourteenth licensing round last week, and is keen to get cracking on exploration.

Ineos now claims to be the biggest player in shale in terms of UK onshore oil and gas licenses with one million acres under control, up from 300,000 acres. 

While shale drilling remains contentious in the UK, it has the support of the Tory government, which has stripped local authorities of their planning permissions in order to support more fraccing.

In a bid to overcome the sorts of protests that stopped Cuadrilla Resources in Lancashire, in addition to the required community consultation, Ineos has pledged to give 4% of revenue to homeowners and landowners directly above wells and 2% to the wider communities.

It remains to be seen if that will placate fears of environmental damage, but Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe says the potential of shale gas in the UK will transform manufacturing.

Ineos believes that its knowledge and experience in running complex petrochemical facilities, coupled with its world class sub-surface expertise makes it the right company to extract UK shale gas.

Unlike many of its rivals Ineos can use shale gas as both a feedstock and a power source, as its areas are close to several of its plants. 

That means shale gas could help underpin the competiveness of Ineos’s manufacturing sites across the UK for years to come, bolstering the wider UK manufacturing sector as they have done in the US.

Ineos says if it finds the gas more reforms will be needed before the company can move to wide-scale production. 

It believes it can prove up a shale gas resources in 2-4 years, and it has the backing of prime minister David Cameron has pledged to go “all out” to extract the potential shale gas reserves, to help offset declining North Sea oil and gas output

Overall, the UK government awarded 159 licences and 75% of the blocks covered were related to shale gas or oil, in what was the UK’s first onshore licencing round in seven years.

In addition to Ineos, Companies that obtained new licences include the established shale gas companies IGas, Egdon Resources and Cuadrilla.

The licence awards came after a year-long review that concluded shale gas can be safely developed. 

The shale gas task force report says that companies should get on with drilling to determine if the resources are there before extolling the benefits.

The taskforce was, not surprisingly, funded by five companies with commercial interests in fraccing, including Cuadrilla and the British Gas owner Centrica Energy.