Days after Scotland launched a four-month public consultation on fracking, which exploration companies and environmentalists alike hope will see their position confirmed, olefins and polyolefins producer Ineos was thrust into the center of the pro- and anti-fracking discussion again – this time over allegations it had been putting pressure on an English charity to allow exploration on its territory.

While Ineos has been pushing for an end to the Scottish moratorium, in place since the beginning of 2015, it has been concentrating its efforts on England for the interim. Environmental advocacy group Greenpeace, which campaigns against fracking, this week published documents showing that the Swiss-headquartered group’s fracking arm, Ineos Shale, had threatened to invoke the Mines Working Facilities and Support Act of 1966 to gain access to land.

Under the act, exploration companies can ask the government to take legal action against landowners who refuse access for surveying. Tom Pickering, operations director of INEOS Shale, told the newspaper Sunday Times: “If we cannot achieve access by negotiation, then the provisions under this act are available to us and we would pursue them.”

Ineos has acknowledged reports in circulation it had “warned the National Trust – which owns the land in Nottinghamshire surrounding the Major Oak, a 1,000-year old tree that according to legend sheltered Robin Hood and his band of “merry men” in the 15th century – that it would take legal action under the act if the charity continued to refuse it access to the property, a protected historical site.

Elsewhere in England, the activists said Ineos appeared to be using “heavy handed tactics” against unwilling property owners. The chemical group denied any pressure; however, the released documents said Ineos had confirmed that a land agent with whom it works, identified by fracking opponents as Fisher German Priestner, had threatened legal action. Greenpeace said also that emails it obtained through the UK’s Freedom of Information Act showed the British Geological Survey had asked Ineos to refrain from using its name when trying to convince landowners to cede property it wants to frack.

Chairman, Jim Ratcliffe, has said repeatedly he wants Ineos to be the biggest player in the UK shale gas industry. Ineos reportedly now owns licenses to explore for shale gas across more than one million acres throughout England and Scotland, but before it can begin it must carry out seismic surveying. Earthquakes near land being fracked around Blackpool, England, led to a UK-wide moratorium on fracking, which was later lifted.

The Scottish government plans to make its own recommendations to its Parliament toward the end of 2017 about keeping or ending the moratorium. The SNP's Holyrood Manifest says the party will not allow fracking unless it is “proven beyond any doubt that there is no risk to health, communities or the environment.” At the consultation’s launch, environmental advocacy groups expressed concern about remarks by government ministers that “fracking could provide “important benefits” for the petrochemicals sector.