NATURAL GAS RESERVOIR TAPPED BY WELL-SINKER

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27592, 24 February 1955, Page 14

NATURAL GAS RESERVOIR TAPPED BY WELL-SINKER

(New Zealand Press Association)

MASTERTON, February 23. A pocket of gas of unknown size was struck and ignited during boring for artesian water on a farm at South Featherston yesterday. The driller, Mr D. Martin, of Carterton, had gone down 155 feet with his rig at 3 pxn., when a jet of yellow flame flared up from the bore. Quickly he harnessed up a nearby tractor and towed his rig away from the flames. The drill had to be left in the bore.

At first, the flame shot up 20 feet. Later it burned fairly steadily at a height of seven or. eight feet. Occasionally hot mud was shot eight to 10 feet into the air.

Last evening, the owner of the property, Mr R. J. Yule, notified the chief fixe officer of the Featherston Fire Brigade (Mr W. Boston), and Mr Boston attempted unsuccessfully to quell the flame with a foam extinguisher. A yellow reflection from the flame could be seen in the sky from more than a mile away last night, but the bore itself was hidden from the Yule homestead by a 10-foot stopbank. “I think the pressure has increased this morning,” said Mr Yule today. *‘The bore is making a noise similar to, but in a smaller scale than those at Wairakei.”

Messrs H. E. Fyfe and R. F. Hay, of the Geological Survey. Wellington, visited Mr Yule’s farm today. “The gas is probably methane, commonly known as marsh gas,” said Mr Fyfe on his return to Wellington tonight. “It is burning with a flame six to 10 feet long, and issuing from the bore under fair pressure, the rate of flow at a guess being from 150 to 200 cubic feet a minute.”

Mr Fyfe said methane had been previously encountered in some bores in the wairarapa, but never in such quantity. It was not possible to predict what quantity of gas .would ultimately be obtained from this bore. It might burn on at the present rate for some time —months or years. On the other hand, it might suddenly peter out

Once the gas was burnt out. it would probably be followed by artesian water, said Mr Fyfe. There was enough gas flowing at present to light and heat a small village.

The gas had apparently risen from the gravel and alluvial deposits that filled the Wairarapa valley, Mr Fyfe said. The gas had been effectively sealed off from the surface by a layer of clay. There was no possibility of it being gas from oil deposits, as it was not coming from oil-bearing strata.