Due today, Scotland’s first cargo of fracked shale gas

THE first shipment of US shale gas produced by fracking will arrive in Scotland this morning.

A tanker carrying almost a million cubic feet of ethane will dock at Grangemouth.

Global chemical giant Ineos, owner of the Stirlingshire refinery and petrochemicals plant, predicts that gas from wells more than 3,000 miles away will replace dwindling North Sea supplies and secure the jobs of thousands.

Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe has accused the Scottish Government of ‘hypocrisy’ for welcoming shale gas at a time when drilling for it here is banned.

There is an estimated 80trillion cubic feet of shale gas beneath the ground in central Scotland. However, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is said to be ‘highly sceptical’ about fracking and MSPs voted in favour of a ban on drilling for shale gas here.

Last year, the Scottish Government introduced a moratorium on fracking and ministers com-

‘Henchmen and head-choppers’

missioned a series of expert bodies to assess the potential impact it would have on the country. The results are due by the end of this year.

The fracked gas arriving in Scotland has travelled from wells in the Marcellus basin, a shale rock formation taking in large swathes of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and upstate New York.

Ineos had planned to shut down the Grangemouth refinery in 2013 but reversed the decision and built a new gas terminal for importing US shale gas.

The energy company said today’s shipment was the culmination of £1.6billion of investment that will see eight tankers form a ‘virtual pipeline’ between the US and the UK and Norway.

Labour yesterday pledged to ban fracking if elected to government at Holyrood.

In her speech to the UK party conference, Scottish leader Kezia Dugdale said ‘our Ban Fracking Bill would do what the SNP have avoided doing – it would say no ifs, no buts, no fracking’.

However, opponents of a ban expressed dismay, with Gary Smith, the GMB union’s Scotland Secretary, saying: ‘We will have to confront the fact that we will be buying gas from hangmen, henchmen and head-choppers. We don’t think that’s ethical.’