Britain just discovered 100 billion barrels of oil near Gatwick Airport

UK Oil & Gas Investments, the exploration, development and production group, just revealed that it discovered around 100 billion barrels of oil near Gatwick Airport.

The group said in a regulatory statement that there could be up to 100 billion barrels of oil onshore beneath the South of England, after it drilled a well at Horse Hill near Gatwick Airport, West Sussex last year. It added that the local area could hold 158 million barrels of oil per square mile.

"Drilling the deepest well in the basin in 30 years, together with the ability to use concepts, techniques and technology unavailable in the 1980s, has provided new cutting-edge data and interpretations to comprehensively change the understanding of the area's potential oil resources," said Stephen Sanderson, CEO of UKOG in a statement.

However, UKOG admitted that it estimates that only 3% to 15% of the oil could be recovered, when compared to similar geology in the US and West Siberia.

But this is a boon for Britain where Scotland's North Sea oil industry continues to battle dwindling oil production. It has only produced around 45 billion barrels in the last 40 years.

In 2014, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) laid out how the North Sea oil industry is in dire straits. The average oil output in 2013 from the North Sea clocked its lowest level since 1977.