"UNDER STATE DIRECTION"

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22451, 12 July 1938, Page 10

"UNDER STATE DIRECTION"

♦ Oil Produced For Export MINISTER DEFINES SITUATION No Financial Aid From Government The Government has no financial interest whatever in the extensive oil prospecting campaign about to be started in the Dominion. This was emphasised by the Minister for Mines, the Hon. P. C. Webb, in an interview yesterday. The Minister said that in the event of flow oil being discovered in the Dominion, the Government proposed to exercise a close supervision on the destination of any oil for export. The oil drilling campaign will first be centred on a locality hear Gisborne. Mr Webb said yesterday that practically all the oil drilling plant, amounting in value to nearly £70,000, had been landed in the Dominion, and a very big staff had been engaged in its erection. It was anticipated that the actual drilling would start within a month. The Minister said that geologists and geophysicists representing New Zealand Petroleum Company were at work on the Tai'anaki fields and a number of geologists representing the Shell Oil Company were also in the Dominion preparing for surveys. “No Interest” Mr Webb was asked whether the Government had any close financial interest in the coming prospecting campaign. Was the Government assisting ‘financially in any of the coming prospectihg operations? he was asked. Mr Webb answered emphatically in the negative. The Government had cleared away the obstacles in the way of an extensive prospecting campaign in the Dominion, by virtue of the Petroleum Bill, he said, but had at no time committed itself to any financial obligation. The legislation had given private enterprise an opportunity ’o prospect for oil. Had that opportunity not been taken, the Government would have undoubtedly embarked on a drilling campaign of its own. “But the Government has decreed that all oil found belongs to the Crown, and that before any of the oil can be exported, refineries must be established here to supply local wants. The question of export of any oil found here must be one for the Government to decide. In fact, no export of New Zealand oil can take place, without the authority of the Government.” Government Pleased “We are delighted with the response which has been made by the various companies to the call for prospecting,” the Minister said. “Naturally the Government intends to assist in every way possible. The Government is gratified to note that the most vigorous and systematic campaign in the search for oil in the southern hemisphere has started here, with the most modern plant possible and under the most expert technicians. lam satisfied for myself that if oil exists here in payable quantities the staff and plant now engaged here will find it.”