More than 200 communities in the English countryside may be sitting on billions of pounds of undiscovered oil, according to prospectors.

Scores of greenfield sites across southern and eastern England are being mapped for viability as world oil prices soar.

The Government has received 60 applications from 54 companies to explore 182 plots, but is keeping the details confidential because they are commercially sensitive. Villages, hamlets or new estates will learn about a prospector’s interest only if permission is sought to drill or extract oil.

The Times has learnt that rural locations from the South Downs to the Lincolnshire Wolds have been designated potential oilfields. There is a 70-mile stretch of small oil deposits in limestone and sandstone from Poole in Dorset, through Hampshire to West Sussex, and pockets in Surrey, the East Midlands and South Wales.

In stirrings that could indicate the start of a nationwide resistance to Dallas-style entrepreneurs, conservationists and locals in West Sussex have expressed outrage at the county council’s giving approval for exploration Markwell Woods — an ancient woodland near Chichester, and part of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

They fear that the site may contain as much as 200 million barrels of oil, with a potential value of £12 billion, and the permanent disruption that would result.

Five years ago there were only eight applications for onshore oil exploration in Britain involving six companies and 22 plots. But prospectors’ interest has grown with the price of oil.

In August last year Brent crude was $70 (£36) a barrel By the first week of November — just before the deadline for the latest round of onshore licence applications — it was up to $93.49 a barrel and yesterday it was $124.

It may be some months before Northern Petroleum starts drilling in Markwell Woods, in its first onshore venture into oil in Britain, but locals are already on their guard.

David Parker lives close to the Forestside site and is concerned about the traffic and road closures. “There is bound to be damage to the road,” he said.

“How do you get a 3.5 metre-wide low-loaders up a small country road? Lots of horses use this road and what about the verges?”

The Woodland Trust denounced the scheme as “an act of vandalism”. It rates the destruction of a hectare of ancient woodland — the richest habitat for wildlife in Britain — as the national equivalent of the despoliation of rainforests.

Supporters of the plan are appealing for calm. Andrew Tyrie, Conservative MP for Chichester, said: “They will explore for three years and if there is oil then there will have to be further planning permission. Clearly, if there is going to be an oilfield it has to be done in a sensitive way and great thought will be needed for the local road structure.”

Northern Petroleum admits that there would be some disruption and noise for the three to six weeks of drilling, but says that if oil were found, people would not know extraction was taking place.

Oliver Harwood, energy adviser at the Country, Land and Business Association, said: “This rural enterprise has been going on quietly for some time. It’s about jobs and income in the countryside and energy security for the nation.

“If the site is well screened or away from roads most people would never know about it.”

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