INEOS and Shale

One of my last tasks under the highfalutin' banner of Bawden Consulting Ltd has been to audit a shale gas model being prepared for INEOS.

Now I see that the company has bought a 51% interest in an exploration block in Scotland (which happens to include land around INEOS' Grangemouth refinery and petrochemicals complex). What I find interesting is INEOS' intention to share some of the proceeds with home- and land-owners and communties. It expects to distribute 4% of revenues to home- and land-owners and a further 2% to communities. It claims that the total distributed could amount to as much as £2.5bn over the lifetime of the project.

That's one way to reduce the inevitable anti-shale sentiment.

INEOS is a non-operating partner. The operator is Dart Energy who hold the remaining 49% interest.