Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos owns the fracking rights for the land underneath Manchester United's Carrington training ground

The company owned by Manchester United takeover candidate Sir Jim Ratcliffe holds the rights to explore for shale gas beneath the club's Carrington training ground. Chemical giant Ineos owns a 60 per cent stake in an onshore oil and gas licence covering large swathes of Trafford and Salford.

The licence, known as PEDL193, covers an inverted, L-shaped 296 sq km plot including Carrington, Trafford Park, Irlam, Eccles, Urmston, Stretford and Sale, stretching from Golborne, Wigan at its north west boundary, down to Higher Whitley, Cheshire, at the south west edge. Its north eastern boundary is around half a mile from Old Trafford stadium. Ineos owns 60 per cent of the licence, with the 40 per cent held by Star Energy Group, previously known as IGas Energy.

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Ineos initially paid £30m for a 50% stake in the rights to PEDL193 and several other sites in the North West, East Midlands and Scotland in a deal with IGas energy in March 2015. Ineos also said it would invest £138m into exploration programmes to develop the sites.

Speaking at the time, Ineos Upstream CEO Gary Haywood said: "This is a further significant step for Ineos in its plan to become the biggest player in the UK shale gas industry. We believe shale gas could revolutionise UK manufacturing and Ineos has the resources to make it happen, the skills to extract the gas safely and the vision to realise that communities must share in the rewards for it to be successful."

Ineos' ownership of the licence was first reported by financial news website Proactive. The licence remains active until 2024.

Ineos, which already sponsors the British sailing team and owns the Ineos