British Energy Firm Says Over £300 Billion Of Oil Discovered Near Gatwick Airport

Up to 100 billion barrels of oil could be held by an oil field located near Britain’s Gatwick Airport. UK Oil & Gas Investments, or UKOG, a UK energy company, said on Thursday that new concepts, techniques and technology gave it an improved understanding of the Weald Basin.

Oil companies have actually been drilling in the basin since the 1930s, but a new analysis on a new well indicates up to 158 million barrels of oil per square mile could be in the region, reports AP. In monetary terms, it could be worth £300 billion, the company said.

In 2014, a separate report commissioned by the British government stated that the basin holds 9.57 billion barrels of shale oil. It is a type of oil trapped in underground rock, different from the oil that UKOG has been exploring.

However, there is a big “if” to the finding. Imperial College London professor of petroleum geoscience Alastair Fraser points out that the region’s geology is unfriendly. He explains that its rocks are extremely tight and non-permeable.

While UKOG said that the Weald Basin is naturally fractured, which means conventional drilling techniques could be used unlike in the U.S. where developers have to use the controversial hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, other experts agree with Fraser. They said that only a small portion of the oil in shale rock formations could be extracted.

There is also the anticipated opposition from environmental groups to large-scale drilling in the basin which stretches across 3,180 square miles of southern England.

Mike Jakeman, global commodities analyst of the Economist Intelligence Unit, also doused cold water on the UKOG find. He said that although the numbers sound good, it would unlikely have a significant impact on the UK energy industry because shale oil for the basin would probably be too costly to produce when Brent crude prices are weak.

Nevertheless, news of a possible world class oil resource boosted shareprices of UKOG by 200 percent, prompting local media to call the area Britain’s Dallas, reports Reuters.

To contact the writer, email: v.hernandez@ibtimes.com.au