Business Insider reported that exploration licences at the Horse Hill oil field are set to run out this year, meaning if they aren’t extended companies cannot continue to explore the area which is believed to contain up to 100 billion barrels of oil.

As quoted in the market news:

The Horse Hill oil field, which was at one point tipped to garner 100 billion barrels of oil for Britain by the oil exploration group UK Oil & Gas Investments, is in the spotlight again after another oil company that has a stake in the region says its exploration licences are about to run out.
Doriemus (LSE:DOR), a group that acquires companies and projects in the oil and gas sector in Europe, said in a long regulatory statement that one exploration licence (PEDL137) would expire September 30.
Its second licence (PEDL246) expires June 30.
Doriemus added that the operator of the two licences, Horse Hill Developments Limited (HHDL), had already applied to the Oil & Gas Authority for a one-year extension of the exploration period of PEDL137.
This announcement is a big deal for oil developers in the field. If licences do not get extended, it means companies cannot continue to explore and determine the amount of oil in the ground and how much is likely to be extracted.
The PEDL137 and PEDL246 licenses are held 35 percent by Magellan Petroleum Corporation and 65 percent by Horse Hill Developments Limited, a special-purpose company that holds the rights to a 65 percent participating interest and operatorship in the onshore Horse Hill Oil Field in the Weald Basin, West Sussex.
Doriemus has a 10 percent interest in Horse Hill Development.

Click here to read the full Business Insider report.