Oil worth billions of pounds discovered beneath Gatwick Airport

Exploration firm UK Oil & Gas Investments (UKOG) says there could be up to 100 billion barrels of oil onshore beneath the South of England.

Last year, the firm drilled a well at Horse Hill, near Gatwick airport, and analysis of that well suggests the local area alone could hold 158 million barrels of oil per square mile.

Stephen Sanderson, UKOG's chief executive said: "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."

UKOG says that the majority of the oil lies within the Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge formation at a depth of between 2,500ft (762m) and 3,000ft (914m).

It describes this as a "world class potential resource" and that the well has the "potential for significant daily oil production".