Crews drill in search of oil lake

Environmentalists feared birds at Whisby Nature Park would be disturbed

Exploratory drilling is being carried out to uncover what could be a multi-million pound oil lake in Lincolnshire.

The site is near Whisby Nature Park near Lincoln, and experts from Europa Oil and Gas said the chance of hitting oil was one-in-three.

Drilling started about 10 days ago and is expected to continue for 10 more.

Rachel Shaw from the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust said she was satisfied animals and birds would be not be disturbed by the process.

She said: "Following discussions with Europa Oil we removed our objections to the planning application and agreed a number of mitigation measures with them.

The noise levels are substantially lower than we thought they would be Rachel Shaw, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust

"The impact is much less than we had feared anyway and the noise levels are substantially lower than we thought they would be."

Managing director of Europa Oil and Gas Paul Barrett said the work was being done at the time of year when the birds were least likely to be disturbed.

He said geochemical and seismic surveys had indicated there was a good chance of finding an oil lake.

It has cost £1.5m to drill the well and the company anticipates that, if oil is found there, it could yield up to five million barrels.

Drilling crews are expected to reach their 1,000 metre target by the end of next week.

The company, based in Abingdon in Oxfordshire, currently has three producing oil fields in the East Midlands.