INEOS
INEOS is a multinational chemicals company, owned by infamous tax dodger Jim Ratcliffe: Brexiteer and UK’s 5th richest person living the wine swilling life in Monaco.
It also happens to be Scotland’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, with an article by The Ferret highlighting a SEPA report, which stated that INEOS’s ‘Petroineos oil refinery at Grangemouth emitted 1.6 million tonnes of the gas’.
An anocrym of the rather glamorous ‘Inspec Ethylene Oxide Specialities’, INEOS was established in 1998 and has expanded to extract and supply many chemical products, including ammonia, sulphur dioxide, and PVC compounds. Petrochemicals are central to its operation, including ethanol, biodiesels and most prominently and controversially, natural gas. In particular, INEOS aggressive activities in the fracked gas sector, have wreaked devastation on local communities, polluting water sources and causing tremors. This, along with their arrogant and bullying tactics, has galvanised strong opposition from locals and activists, and generated a negative public image – something Ratcliffe is keen to change by pumping money into sport.
The Battle for Grangemouth
INEOS runs Scotland’s only oil refinery at Grangemouth. The refinery, which processes crude oil from the North Sea into diesel, petrol, kerosene, jet fuel, and LNG was in 2017 Scotland’s largest source of climate emissions, emitting 1.6 million tonnes of Greenhouse Gases. In addition, the INEOS site at Grangemouth also hosts facilities to receive shale gas fracked in the US and a power plant which powers the facilities, which in itself is Scotland’s 4th largest carbon emitter, producing 690,000 tons of carbon in 2017. And worryingly, INEOS has plans to continue to expand the facility over the course of the 2020s.
The INEOS facility at Grangemouth is unpopular with the local community and has become a focal point for much of Scotland’s anti-fracking movement, spearheaded by local groups such as Friends of the Earth Falkirk and Extinction Rebellion Stirling. While there is currently a moratorium on Fracking in Scotland, drilling licenses are still active and activists remain vigilant.
A North Sea Numpty
In only five years, INEOS has become a very big player in the exploitation of Oil and Gas reserves in the North Sea. Their purchase of Danish company Dong Energy’s entire North Sea Operations in 2017, at a value of $1 billion dollars, included ownership of ‘Ormen Lange, the second largest gas field in Norwegian waters, Laggan-Tormore, a new gas field west of Shetland, and oil and gas hubs in Denmark’. On sealing the deal, Henrik Poulsen, CEO of DONG Energy, said ‘We have been actively working to get the best transaction by selling the business as a whole to ensure its long-term development and, with INEOS, we have obtained just that.’ A rather cynical statement for a company that touts its green credentials, no?
INEOS are committed to ‘our Oil & Gas business and supports the Government’s strategy to maximise economic recovery of gas from the North Sea’. Indeed, in 2018 they sought to extend the lifespan of their oil and gas investments in the North Sea as far as possible, including a $80m investment into a new pipeline and sub-sea equipment for the Clipper South field in the Southern North Sea. Furthermore, in 2019 as reported in Energy Voice, ‘INEOS announced it was investing £500 million to extend the life of the Forties Pipeline System by “at least 20 years” in a move hailed by industry leaders as a show of faith in the North Sea’s future.
Offensive PR
Perhaps aware of their faltering public image, particularly in relation to their destructive UK fracking operations, INEOS has initiated a PR offensive, involving itself in all things sporty. For a company that has been linked to a third of industrial pollution in Scotland, you may think that sponsoring The Daily Mile campaign to get school children running regularly is a bit of a wheeze. But it doesn’t stop there for INEOS, Nice Football Club is owned and sponsored by INEOS, the own the rather goofilly named the INEOS Grenadiers (strong favourites in the Tour de France), as well as the sailing team INEOS Team UK, captained by five-time Olympic medalist Ben Ainslie.
Rushing to crush dissent – and failing
While INEOS is brazen in its polluting activities, like many other powerful bullies, it hates to be challenged on its destructive behaviours. In 2017, the company obtained a High Court injunction to prevent activists disrupting its fracking activities. Activists challenged this verdict, but shamefully it was again upheld later in 2017. However, after pursuing the case in the Court of the Appeal, the injunction was declared unlawful and struck down.
NOMINATED CATEGORIES
North Sea Numpty Award
Gaslight Award
NOMINATED CATEGORIES
Slimiest Greenwash Award
Lifetime Achievement Award
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