The drilling companies typically acquire leases with landholders who have access to oil and mineral rights below their land by using a landman (either an employee of the company or an independent agent), who offers a fixed price per acre for the right to drill, plus a royalty percentage of the value of the produced hydrocarbons.

FORBES: Shale Leases: Promised Land

Mr Finlay said he met with the land agent in spring 2010 to discuss renting one of the Buchanan Trust farms, who said a property would be available in six months.

BBC: Buchanan Trust trust 'fails' ex-servicemen

He told The Conspiracy Files that if he was a terrorist involved in the bombing he would have been handed over to the Americans long ago and that if he was an agent he would have been "taken out" or living under an assumed identity in a foreign land.

BBC: Q&A: What really happened