PLANS to drill an oil well off the Studland coast are currently being considered by the Government.

Corallian Energy last year submitted a bid to drill an exploratory well at the site six kilometres east-northeast of the popular beach and nature reserve, and just south of Poole Bay's Wytch Farm oilfield - the largest onshore field in Europe.

The well would be 1,800m long, drilled vertically into an area dubbed the 'Colter Prospect' by a jack-up rig roughly 100m above the water at its highest point.

It would be in place for several weeks while the reservoir is investigated.

A consultation is under way until February 19, after which a decision is expected from the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

A spokesman for the department said: "There is no set timeframe for a decision, it depends on whether more information is needed.

"It is likely to be months rather than weeks."

The Oil and Gas Authority said the firm had recently extended its licence for P1918 - a swathe of seabed extending eastwards from the Purbeck peninsula.

A spokesman for the Crown Estate, which owns the seabed, said: "The Crown Estate is working with Corallian to finalise an exploration drilling agreement, which would grant them consent to undertake exploration drilling, just off the Swanage coast.

"This follows the decision of the Oil and Gas Authority, the regulatory body for the sector, to grant a licence for the Colter Prospect project."

Numerous bodies have to be consulted by the Government before a decision is made. These include authorities in France.

More locally, Dorset's councils and others along the south coast as far as East Sussex, as well as Natural England, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, the Environment Agency, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Defence Infrastructure Organisation are all consultees.

Bournemouth council has criticised the plan, saying that like the plans for the Navitus Bay wind farm proposed several years ago, a drilling rig in the bay would like cause damage to the town's tourism industry.

In its submission, the council says it is "aiming to be a Green Economy Leader, and one of the greenest cities in the UK", and therefore "oil exploration near to our coastline does not fit with these aims".

The well would be sealed once tests are complete. Corallian says it plans to extract oil from the site by drilling horizontally from Wytch Farm, so a long-term platform will not be needed.