Wednesday 26 August 2015 8:31 am

UK Oil & Gas share price rises as new survey suggests there are 11bn barrels of oil at Horse Hill

Another day, another survey of oil reserves under the 55 square mile areas in Horse Hill, near Gatwick, owned by maverick oil explorer UK Oil & Gas (Ukog).

Nicknamed the "Gatwick Gusher" after a now-famous suggestion there were up to 100bn barrels of oil in that area, Ukog said today a new survey by Schlumberger, which has undertaken several previous surveys of the area, showed a more modest 10.993bn barrels of oil within the area. Still, that's higher than the 271.5m barrels also previously suggested by Schlumberger.

"The independent analysis has further tested and given support to our geological model which predicts that the significant volumes of oil in place calculated within the tight Jurassic section of HH-1 extend across the Licence Area," said Stephen Sanderson, the company's chairman.

"The report is thus a further step towards establishing proof of concept for the Jurassic tight oil play potential of Horse Hill and the Weald Basin."

It's been a dramatic few months for the company, whose share price rose more than 300 per cent in April after it said it had discovered oil at Horse Hill. In July chairman and co-founder David Lenigas quit, saying it was "my policy to step down from the boards of companies once I believe that they have reached a state of maturity where they require sector-experienced executive management to take over".

Shares in the Aim-listed company rose 10 per cent to 2.15p in the first minutes of trading today, before dropping back to 1.84p, about three per cent higher.