UK Oil and Gas (LON:UKOG), the firm behind the Horse Hill discovery near Gatwick, has had to distance itself again from comments made by its chairman David Lenigas.
Speaking to the press last Friday, Lenigas repeated the claim that there could be 100bln barrels of oil in the south east of England.
"We said we believed there were 158mln barrels per square mile and we own 55 square miles. We think we can recover three per cent to 15% - that’s 100bln barrels,” Lenigas told the Evening Standard.
However, UKOG released a statement to investors this morning reiterating that it could only comment on its small licence area, the PEDL137 licence, which contains the Horse Hill-1 Well.
“The company has not undertaken work outside of its licence areas sufficient to comment on the possible oil in place in either the approximate 1,100 square miles of the Jurassic section of the Weald Basin or the whole of the Weald Basin.”
Last month, UKOG, which a 30% stake in Horse Hill Developments (a consortium with a 65% stake in the prospect) had to issue a similar clarification.
Announcing the oil discovery last month, UKOG chief executive Stephen Sanderson, said: "We believe we can recover between 5% and 15% of the oil in the ground, which by 2030 could mean that we produce 10% to 30% of the UK's oil demand from within the Weald area."
At the time, shares in UKOG rocketed more than 300% but have since drifted lower to trade at 2.7p.