Ineos acquires CHP plant to power Grangemouth refinery

Chemical giant Ineos has bought the gas-fired power plant which supplies its Grangemouth refinery for £54 million, saying it could be fuelled by shale gas from its recently acquired license block nearby.

The acquisition of the 145MW combined heat and power (CHP) plant from Fortum follows news earlier this week that the company will take a majority stake in Dart Energy’s shale project which lies just a short distance from the Scottish refinery.

“Competitive, efficient energy is a critical element necessary to secure the long term future of the Grangemouth site,” a statement from the company said.

A spokesman for Ineos confirmed that the company intends to use gas extracted from the license block to fuel the plant which then supplies power to its petrochemical refinery.

In addition the PEDL 133 licence holds a five year gas supply deal with SSE Energy.

“We want to become a leader in UK shale gas development because we believe it is the only way for UK manufacturing industry to stay competitive,” a spokesman for the company said.

“With further declines predicted in the North Sea production and power demands from gas set to increase, our dependency on imported gas will grow unless a domestic supply can be found,” he added.

The CHP plant could use a range of fuels, but would take shale gas if it becomes available on the market in time and at the right price, the spokesman explained.

“Ineos is one of very few businesses that can use shale gas as both a fuel and a feedstock and we are already spending hundreds of millions of pounds to import ethane from shale gas as a feed stock for production from the USA,” he added.

Ineos describes the power plant acquisition as working “hand in hand” with its £300 million infrastructure project at the site to import and store ethane.

Excess power produced by the plant will be sold to National Grid, it said.