The deal also includes IGas’ Scottish shale site near Ineos’ Grangemouth refinery, and will see the chemicals giant take the remaining stake in the licence to give the company 100 per cent ownership.
Ineos Upstream chief executive Gary Haywood said the “significant step” is part of the company’s plan to become “the biggest player in the UK shale gas industry”.
The deal follows on from October last year when Ineos acquired a 51 per cent stake in the Scottish project which already has a 5-year gas supply deal with big six utility SSE. Ineos said it intends to use gas extracted from the licence to fuel the recently acquired 145MW combined heat and power plant which supplies power to its petrochemical refinery.
In the Bowland shale region Ineos will take a 60 per cent stake in three licence areas and a 50 per cent stake in a further four licence areas. In addition the company has the option to take a 20 per cent stake in two East Midland licence areas.
On top of the £30 million cash lump sum Ineos has committed to paying £138 million to develop the sites, part of which will be paid back to the company by IGas when commercial operations begin.
As part of the company’s bid to drive the controversial new sector forward it has promised local Scottish communities a £2.5 billion share of the licence revenues, up to four times that of the agreed industry standard, to increase public acceptance of shale extraction.