More than 60 people gathered in Totland Church Hall this week to hear from Frack Free Isle of Wight, a group formed in response to concerns about drilling for oil and gas on the English Channel island, the largest and second most populous island in England with 140,000 residents.

The presentation covered the licence, UKOGI’s plans, government support for fraccing, the island’s geology, details on the differences between conventional and unconventional drilling and the risks and rewards of an oil and gas discovery.

The junior was awarded P1916 for conventional and unconventional drilling in a 200sq.km area of the island in the 14th licencing round.

UKOGI is the operator and holds a 77.5% interest in offshore licence P1916 and 65% of the onshore acreage (PEDL331) contain other Jurassic and Triassic leads and prospects, including the M prospect, which could host 285 million barrels and 520 billion cubic feet (P10%) in the Portland Limestone and Triassic Sherwood Sandstone.

The licence is in the Wessex Basin, which is a proven hydrocarbon system with many producing fields including Wytch Farm, the UK’s biggest oil field.

Australia’s Norwest Energy has three Promote blocks – 98/7b, 98/8a and 98/12 (part) - in the channel between Wytch Farm and the isle, which could be upgraded if UKOGI has any success.

It previously owned about half of the Isle of Wight, and defined the large Razorback prospect, and it assessed the Jurassic shales, before focusing on the offshore areas, deciding the onshore leases were simply too difficult.

In January UKOGI said it was advancing its plans to drill a number of wells on the island, starting with a test of an undeveloped Jurassic oil discovery at Arreton.

Xodus Group concluded that the Arreton-2 undeveloped discovery and the adjacent low-risk Arreton North and South prospects contain aggregate gross P50 oil-in-place of 219MMbbl within Purbeck, Portland and Inferior Oolite limestone reservoirs.

Arreton-2, drilled in 1974, discovered several reservoirs, but while hydrocarbons were encountered in strong oil shows, no hydrocarbons flowed to surface.

Local newspaper The Island Echo reported that the community is considered that the local council has just 16 weeks to assess any fraccing request, and it is unprepared for that eventuality.

In January the council passed motion passed Jan 20 that said the “the government has a clear policy in favour of fracking and should therefore be unable to take such planning decisions as there is a clear issue of predetermination by the secretary of state”

Two more Frack Free Isle of Wight public meetings being held this week.