Scotland's chemical sciences sector is well placed to survive as shakeout of the industry in Europe, thanks to new investment at the mammoth Grangemouth complex, said Sandy Dobbie, chairman of Chemical Sciences Scotland, an organization dedicated to safeguarding and developing the industry in Scotland.

The £300 million being pumped by Ineos, the UK and Scottish governments into facilities to import US-derived shale gas feedstocks to the Ineos Grangemouth site "leave the nation in good stead at a time of market change," Dobbie said.

With the shale gas revolution reinvigorating US manufacturing and accelerating the closure of many no longer competitive naphtha-based refineries, the Ineos facility will profit as it will be able to process gas as well as oil-based feedstock, Dobbie added. This will make Ineos "one of the survivors of the coming European shakeout."