LEADING seismologists and geologists have called for an immediate moratorium on oil drilling in Surrey after a dozen earthquakes shook the county in the last four months.

Experts in the hydrocarbon industry wrote to the Times yesterday, as well as to Business Secretary Greg Clark and the heads of the oil industry regulators, to warn that “public health and the environment are not being adequately protected given the unstable geology.”

They added that this instability “had not been identified before planning permission and other permits were issued for the currently active drill sites.”