Oil Combine Begins Drilling In Taranaki

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28805, 28 January 1959, Page 13

Oil Combine Begins Drilling In Taranaki

(New Zealand Press Association)

HAWERA, January 27. “In spite of this being the atomic age, oil and coal are still the largest sources of energy known to man,” said the Minister of Mines (Mr Hackett) at the official “spudding in” near Hawera today of the Shell, 8.P., and Todd exploration well known as Kapuni No. 1. New Zealand had coal reserves of 1000 m tons, and wanted the other to give her economy a new boost, Mr Hackett added. With spectators crowding around him on the platform of the 164 ft derrick. Mr Hackett set the drill in motion on the start of its tracking through the earth for a planned depth of some 10,000 ft to 12,000 ft., Mr Hackett said he expressed gratitude to all responsible for the courage and enterprise being displayed ih the search for oil in Taranaki. Courage was needed, because the search for oil in New Zealand had not given much cause for optimism. It was 120 years ago since Dr. Diefenbacher first detected oil,on the surface, and it was more than 90 years since the first well was sunk in Taranaki. Since then more than £sm had been spent in the country exploring for oil. The province was producing from 200,000 to 300,000 gallons of crude oil per annum, but that was a very small fraction of the 450,000,000 gallons of oil that New Zealand imported annually, involving an expenditure of more than £2om. £lm Spent The discovery of oil in this country in commercial quantities would be an event of tremendous importance economically as well as strategically. There was every reason to feel confident that oil would be found in New Zealand, the Minister said. The present search in Taranaki had been going on for three years, and to the point of drilling more than £lm had been spent. The spudding in of Kapuni No. 1 represented the culmination of the most intensive

and scientific search yet made for oil in this country.

“The decision to bore in the area is the result of very extensive seismic tests, and surveys have all been evaluated by a band of top world scientists, geologists, and oil experts, who are satisfied that the formations here are ideal for the trapping of oil,’’ Mr Hackett said.

Speaking of seismic soundings that assisted the detection of what were known as dome structures, Mr Hackett said that the Kapuni drilling site was above a dome 10 miles long and five miles, wide. All the tests showed it to be as near perfect as possible, and in size it was comparable with world standards.