HUMBLE Porchfield could become the Island's answer to Dallas after a major oil company announced it will investigate drilling for crude oil beneath the small rural village.

Northern Petroleum plc, which has a 40 per cent interest in the licence covering the area, has told its shareholders that there could be almost ten million barrels of oil beneath agricultural land around the village in a field known as the Sandhills-1 oilfield.

The company is preparing a planning application asking the Isle of Wight Council for permission to sink a borehole.

Local residents are not exactly counting their riches just yet.

Steve Kennedy, landlord of the Sportsman's Rest pub, said: "No one I have spoken to has mentioned anything."

"In fact the only black liquid I have heard anything about is the Guinness I serve.

"I can't see anyone getting carried away with this. If anyone starts acting like JR Ewing in a village as small as this they will soon get knocked down a peg."

Youth club leader Nanette Saunders said she would like to know more about what was involved in oil excavation.

"This is a quiet village and I would think people may oppose this," she said.

Jill Wareham, Isle of Wight councillor for Porchfield, said she was awaiting the planning application with interest.

"It is difficult to imagine how anything could change the tranquil nature of Porchfield," she said.

Northern Petroleum said the cost of the exploratory well is likely to be between £600,000 and £1m.

The company has told shareholders the Sandhills project was capable of transforming the perceived value of the company.

It says: "It has been independently evaluated at 9.8 million barrels of 'probable' oil reserves."

This would make it bigger in terms of reserves than Humbly Grove in Hampshire, which is nearing the end of its productive life and has netted about eight million barrels.

The exact site of the borehole has not been identified, but it is likely to be close to a previous test well on land to the west of Whitehouse Road, at Youngwoods Farm.

"We are very certain the oil is in the ground, more than 90 per cent certain, but the issue is can we get it to the surface at a rate of production which is economic?" said Mr Musgrove.

If the site went into production, Mr Musgrove promised the impact on the environment would be minimal. "There won't be a fleet of tankers hauling oil away and the rig will not be there for very long," he said.