The United Kingdom has been actively prospected for oil since 1936 by several major companies, but during the war no details have been released although oil has been commercially produced during this period. The question of oil occurrence in the United Kingdom is discussed in detail on the basis of fundamental geology, and it is shown from geological history that since Devonian time this country has lain far outside the zones of geosynclinal sedimentation and instead has formed part of the eastern edge of the postulated Atlantean Continent, whereby it has either been a land area for much of succeeding geological time or else has been covered by shallow shelfseas with relatively thin sedimentation. Locally, suitable environments for oil generation may have occurred in the arboniferous and Jurassic. The United Kingdom has been the meeting place of three major orogenic movements in which violent folding has taken place followed by lengthy erosion periods. The geological pattern of the United Kingdom is characterized by a number of rigid Lower Paleozoic massifs, either exposed or only shallowly buried, with intervening downwarps containing locally thick Upper Paleozoic and Mesozoic sediments. Oil indications occur over much of the stratigraphical column, particularly in Carboniferous and Jurassic rocks, and are commonly found in close and apparently genetic association with non-marine sediments. Suitable stratigraphical and structural conditions for oil pooling occur in southern England and east-central England but widespread testing has proved commercial pr duction only from the English equivalent of the lower Pottsville, Pennsylvanian system, in the latter region.

It is concluded that the oil prospects of the United Kingdom are definitely restricted both stratigraphically and areally by reason of the geological factors which have together contributed to its development. More pools may be found but nothing of large dimensions is expected.