AN EXPLORATION company is planning to launch a second controversial bid to drill for oil under Hedge End, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Northern Petroleum is in negotiations with the owner of a secret site, between Hedge End and Botley, to secure a lease to drill up to three wells with a 118ft (36m) rig.

The news comes three years after the firm's first attempt to drill for oil on a Hampshire County Council-owned field, off Woodhouse Lane, was scuppered after a huge public outcry.

Oil barrel prices have doubled since 2005 and bosses at Northern Petroleum are once again determined to pump an estimated 50 million barrels from the reservoir lying near Junction 7 of the M27.

The oil field is a potential £5 billion black gold jackpot, however as most of it is beneath thousands of homes the precious fuel has remained untouched since it was discovered in 1988.

In an operations update issued earlier this month, the firm also announced its ambition to drill an exploratory well at another Hampshire site near the A3, between Havant and Waterlooville.

The company's exploration and technical director, Graham Heard, would not reveal the exact location of the new Hedge End site as negotiations are ongoing.

"Yes, we think we might have found somewhere suitable and we are in discussions. Our shareholders have a reasonable expectation that Northern Petroleum will do its best to develop the oilfield," he said.

See today's Daily Echo for the full story