Ineos’s frack warning over limit on tremors

INEOS has warned the Government it could ditch plans to frack for gas in England.

The petrochemicals giant, run by Britain’s richest man Jim Ratcliffe ( pictured), argued that the current limit on the size of earth tremors allowed before mining is halted – 0.5 on the magnitude scale – was ‘artificially low’.

Fracking is where a mixture of sand, water and chemicals are pushed underground at high speed to fracture the rock. This allows gas or oil to seep out but can cause tremors. Minutes of a meeting between Ineos and industry watchdog, the Oil And Gas Authority, were obtained by the FT through a Freedom of Information request. They showed Ineos is ‘strongly of the view that a sensible, realistic, scientifically backed limit is needed’.

Without a higher limit ‘it was strongly hinted they are unlikely to apply for consents to undertake fracking’.

An Ineos spokesman said the industry is being ‘stopped from moving forward’ because the limits have not been reviewed.