Oil and gas companies seek permission to drill in Surrey

Fracking in the UK has up to now predominantly been in the north of England but now the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates areas across the Wessex and Weald basin in Surrey and Sussex may hold 700 million barrels of recoverable shale oil, or more than a year’s supply for Britain.

“The rock in the Weald is splendid, it’s extremely good for shale oil,” said Fivos Spathopoulos, a visiting lecturer of petroleum geology at London’s Imperial College who studied the basin for about seven years. “If it works, it’ll be big but we won’t know exactly how big until we drill.”

Currently the proposed site closest to London is in Balcombe in West Sussex, between Brighton and London. The shale gas company Cuadrilla is to carry out exploratory drilling there in the summer, despite local protests.

However, politicians have suggested that communities who will suffer from the noise and disruption caused by shale gas drilling will be compensated.