It is not often you see vessels being used to carry political messages but then the owner of Ineos, Jim Ratcliffe, is not any ordinary shipping and industrial entrepreneur.

The Ineos Insight was docked at Grangemouth in Scotland with its 27,500 cubic metres of gas and its hull emblazoned with the message “shale gas for manufacturing”.

This might seem an innocent and self-explanatory banner but it comes alongside a furious debate over whether fracking of shale should be allowed in Britain.

Ratcliffe