Reacting to Ineos’ announcement of an information programme regarding shale gas extraction last Tuesday (17 March), environmentalists warned that ‘no amount of money and slick road shows can hide the fact that fracking is a dangerous and dirty industry’.

Friends of the Earth Scotland have been opposing plans to bring so-called fracking to the UK since Ineos acquired 729 sq miles of exploration licences in central Scotland from the UK Government.

Mary Church, head of campaigns for Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “Scottish communities have been fighting the unconventional gas industry for years, and are already very well informed.

“It’s no surprise that Ineos are resorting to spin-doctors and glossy videos to try and lovebomb Scottish communities into stop worrying and learn to love fracking.

“Sadly, Ineos have the budget for a long and dirty fight, while community and campaign groups can only fight their corner on a shoestring.” While the energy giant last Tuesday reinforced an earlier pledge that local communities would receive a share of six per cent from shale gas profits, it was last week revealed that Ineos did not agree to sign up to a UK Government-backed industry pledge to pay communities £100,000 for every site fracked during exploration.

They also did not pledge to pay £20,000 for every horizontal well drilled in a separate industry initiative.

In addition, the Friends believe it is unlikely the company can make fracking profitable.

Ms Church continued: “Ineos’ pie-in-the-sky claims of huge sums of money for communities will never be delivered.

"Using the questionable economics of the USA industry to woo communities when we know UK costs will be much higher is simply indefensible.

"The company is on record saying that if they frack and don’t get enough gas, then communities won’t get a penny.

“The figures the company is using are also based on highly uncertain and exaggerated estimates of how much gas it might be possible to extract from UK shale beds.” Ineos repeatedly stated that as a company with a good safety record, they can extract shale gas safely, unlike some companies in the US.

An investigation by a national newspaper last week claimed that Ineos’ Grangemouth petrochemical plant saw 34 health and safety regulation breaches in the last four years.

Furthermore, it has been claimed that Sepa (Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) has officially rated the plant as ‘poor’ for pollution three years in a row (2010-2012) and since the start of 2015 over 20 staff have been injured.

The company said the claims were ‘baseless’ and that they have one of the best safety records in the chemical industry.

Ms Church added: “Communities will be looking at Ineos’ poor record at Grangemouth when they judge for themselves the trustworthiness of the company’s claims that fracking is safe.

“We are convinced that when Scotland has thoroughly reviewed the evidence around health and climate impacts of unconventional gas the moratorium will swiftly become a permanent ban, just like in New York State.

"Ineos is pouring its money down the drain trying to sell fracking in Scotland when it’s never going to happen anyway.”