SEARCH FOR OIL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 98, 28 April 1930, Page 4

SEARCH FOR OIL.

OMATA SCHEME. boring commenced. (By Telegraph. —Special to " Star. ) NEW PLYMOUTH, this day. Boring for oil on a new site at Omata has been commenced by a new company, which claims that the special methods adopted have been such as to eliminate to the fullest possible degree elements of chance in obtaining oil. The new venture will be opened officially some time in May by the Minister of Mines. The chairman of the head office board, Senator J. D. Milton, will visit New Plymouth from Sydney for the occasion. Blind boring carried out for so many years on the Moturoa and Taranaki fields has been superseded by the modern, yet now world-wide method, of geophysical exploration after geological survey. The manager of the company describes the method as an X-ray of the earth. < The company has been over three years investigating through this means for the most promising site, and considers that it has found tliat site.' The scientists engaged have issued a drilling chart considered to be very important in subsequent development work. While oil accumulations in America have been definitely located by the use of two or three methods, the accumulations at Omata have been subjected to five methods of investigation to probe as far as can be done the probabilities of winning oil in commercial quantities. The plant is capable of drilling to a depth of 8000 feet if required. The existence of a strata of agglomerates on top of the oil rendered it advisable to instal a special plant to cope with the resistances of . that formation. Three shifts will be worked each day, each shift in charge of an expert from overseas. '