Expensive Oil Search Narrowed To Key Areas

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28658, 7 August 1958, Page 4

Expensive Oil Search Narrowed To Key Areas

‘Th* Press' special Service

AUCKLAND. August 6. A £1,500,000 oil search is narrowing down to three or four key areas in the North Island. On both the east and west coasts survey teams are reaching the end of the first phase in their search Soon drilling rigs will be testing their predictions. Scattered over both coasts are scores of indications that oil lies under the country. In some places it seeps from rocky outcrops: in others methane gas bubbles up from streams and swamps. But. the explorers emphasise, this is no indication that oil lies underneath in exploitable quantities. Mr J. B. Price, managing director of the Shell Company of New Zealand, has called the venture both a “costly gamble” and a “calculated risk.” Three companies are conducting the major exploration, although several smaller companies have also been formed throughout New Zealand to search local areas. The main organisations are the Shell Company, British Petroleum and Todd Brothers. A combine formed by Shell. B.P and Todd Oil Services. Ltd., holds a 5574-square-mile concession around Taranaki and another of 12.586 square miles which stretches from East Cape to Wellington. Todd Brothers have a small personal concession around Ruatoria. Exploration is farthest ahead in Taranaki, where the Shell Company is in charge of the search It has narrowed to two areas around Inglewood and Manaia where seismic recordings indicate there are likely oil domes. Drilling will start early in the New Year. A dome is created by faults in the subterranean rock. Oil seeps slowly upward through the earth and tends to collect in these domes. On the east coast British Petroleum geologists are completing their survey. Here they are making an underground map of the whole area by studying rock outcrops and aerial maps. From

these they can forecast possible conditions under the ground. This is an older form of exploration than the seismic survey being done in Taranaki. For a seismic map scientists explode charges under the surface and map the soundwaves reflected from rocks deep under the ground. Around Ruatoria there are extensive seepages of oil and gas. Todd Brothers have had a party in the field there doing a geological survey and sinking a number of small, exploratory holes. A major hole is likely to be put down within a few months. Prospects of finding oil in the North Island are bright, according to the cautious statements of the searchers. But they emphasise that, even if oil is found, it may not be in marketable quantities. Seismic, geological and aerial surveys indicate likely oil-bearing country. The only final test is to sink a well. That will be done next year.