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Jim's big bet

Jim Ratcliffe is building a fleet of ships to carry shale gas and secure his Scottish refinery’s future

Maria Alessia Maresca, clad in a red couture dress and towering heels, held aloft a pair of oversized gold scissors and smiled for the cameras.

Hundreds of Chinese dignitaries and western businessmen looked on, sweating in their suits in the sticky midday heat at Qidong shipyard, two hours north of Shanghai. “One, two, three, go,” she cried, before cutting a rope to send a champagne bottle crashing over the bow of the Ineos Insight.

The ship’s horn sounded, fireworks exploded overhead and a paper dragon held aloft by half-a-dozen dancers shim–mied across the red carpet.

It was a big moment for Maresca’s partner, Jim Ratcliffe, the 62-year-old billionaire behind chemicals giant Ineos.

The Insight and the Ineos Ingenuity, also named at last Tuesday’s ceremony, are