UK oil and gas company Midmar is to drill for oil in Kent.

Midmar Energy UK has won planning permission from Kent County Council to build a temporary drilling site near Bidborough, in Tunbridge Wells.

The original planning application was submitted last December and asked to drill two appraisal wells.

Construction work at the site will start later this year, with drilling planned for the first quarter of 2011.

Midmar is also a founding partner in Mesopotamia Petroleum Co, which was formed to focus on opportunities in Iraq.