Jim Ratcliffe

This article is part of the Spinwatch Fracking Portal and project

Jim Ratcliffe is the founding chairman and main shareholder of the petrochemical giant Ineos Group. In 2018 he was ranked as Britain's wealthiest person on the Sunday Times Rich List. His fortune was calculated to have grown by an incredible £15billion on the previous year, rising to £21billion, driven by a huge increase in the value of Ineos.

Previously he had ranked among the UK's 25 richest people, with a net worth of £5.75 billion in 2017.

Ratcliffe was knighted in the 2018 Queen's birthday honours list.

Meetings on shale gas with UK government ministers and officials

• Ratcliffe met with Stephen Lovegrove, DECC Permanent Secretary on 28 June 2013 at 3 Whitehall Place. The government's briefing notes described Ratcliffe as 'very well connected and has had a number of meetings with Ministers in various Departments and with Jeremy Heywood'. A section discussing INEOS' potential activities in shale gas was redacted from the briefing note. This meeting appeared to have been suggested to Lovegrove at a 'recent Lancastrian dinner' (held in April 2013). The focus of the meeting was 'primarily... about shale gas and the importance of supporting its development' in the UK.
• Duarte Figueira (Energy Development) Head of the UK Office of Unconventional Gas and Oil - with Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe attended the same meeting above.
• Jeremy Heywood
• Michael Fallon, in November 2013 Ineos met with the BIS minister as part of a wider group 'to discuss chemical industries'. This included Contract Chemicals, Chemical Industries Association, Huntsman, Synthomer, European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC), Dow, Thomas Swan and Company, Croda, Verband der Chemischen Industrie e.V., Solvay, Growhow, Ineos, BASF.