The discovery of up to 100 billion barrels of oil near Gatwick airport could produce 10 to 30 per cent of the UK's oil demand by 2030, according to exploration firm UK Oil & Gas Investments (UKOG).
Exploration near the Horse Hill area of West Sussex has revealed that the area could hold up to 158 million barrels of oil per square mile.
"We think we've found a very significant discovery here, probably the largest [onshore in the UK] in the last 30 years, and we think it has national significance," Stephen Sanderson, UKOG's chief executive, told the BBC.
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Sanderson said the discovery would "comprehensively change the understanding of the area's potential oil resources".
He added: "Based on what we've found here, we're looking at between 50 and 100 billion barrels of oil in place in the ground.
"We believe we can recover between 5 per cent and 15 per cent of the oil in the ground, which by 2030 could mean that we produce 10 per cent to 30 per cent of the UK's oil demand from within the Weald area."
According to the BBC, most experts say the only way the oil can be extracted will be by fracking, or hydraulic fracturing – a controversial process that involves pumping sand, water and chemicals into rocks at high pressure to release gas and oil deposits trapped within them.
Concerns over fracking caused large-scale protests by local residents and environmentalists in 2013 when Cuadrilla was issued a permit to use the process to extract shale gas from a well near Balcombe.
But UKOG sought to allay fears insisting that it does not believe fracking will be required to drill what it describes as a “world-class potential resource".
It said the rocks at Horse Hill are naturally fractured, which "gives strong encouragement that these reservoirs can be successfully produced using conventional horizontal drilling and completion techniques".
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