Ineos, the European refining and petrochemicals company, is close to reaching a settlement with Sinopec, after threatening to take the Chinese state-owned oil group to court over an intellectual property dispute.
Jim Ratcliffe, Ineos chief executive, said yesterday that the two companies were close to a settlement “based on a thorough discussion of the subject, based on a good relationship, a good understanding, and I think very soon we’ll see a very good solution coming out of that”.
Last year, Ineos had announced that it would take an intellectual property complaint against Sinopec to a Chinese court, claiming that Sinopec had built a new acrylonitrile plant without paying technology licensing fees due to Ineos. Acrylonitrile is an ingredient in hard plastics and carbon fibre, used for everything from Lego bricks to the