VILLAGERS near Winchester met a senior manager of an oil company to discuss its hunt for "black gold".
Pentex Oil believes it has discovered a massive oilfield under land at Matterley Estate near Alresford, the biggest found in Britain for 20 years.
Managing director Russell Jordan met villagers at Easton village hall to discuss the company's application to extract the oil.
Pentex is hopeful the oilfield will be exploitable and they want to do more testing before it decides to develop it commercially.
When the news was announced last summer there was concern about the impact on the environment and particularly local roads.
Pentex plans to restore the landscape once the oil well is removed and it intends to remove the oil via the A272 with little or no impact on more local roads.
Alison Matthews, chairman of Itchen Valley Parish Council, said: "The meeting on Tuesday was perfectly amicable."
She added: "People are much more concerned about the planning application to put up 14 houses in Itchen Abbas."
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