Family Company’s Oil Search

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31154, 2 September 1966, Page 1

Family Company’s Oil Search

A Christchurch family of four has formed a company to prospect for oil in the Geraldine area.

The four partners have exploration rights over 87,950 acres in the Kakahu district, about 15 miles from Geraldine. They have just launched the Uranus Petroleum Company. The principal of the company, Mr H. Scandrett, a Christchurch gunsmith, said yesterday he had been interested in the area as a possible source of oil for 30 years. Mr Scandrett owns 2(| acres in the district and is convinced oil exists in large quantities.

He has seen what he called “oil weeps” and the geological formation in the area, mainly limestone, pointed to the presence of oil. It was common to see oil floating on surface water after flooding in summer. He claimed a New Zealand oil company had tested samples from the surface and declared them to be petroleum producing. Mr Scandrett said his company might sell out or go ahead on its own. To launch a search of any size considerable funds would have to be found through public subscription to the company. He thought there was little possibility of Government support unless real signs of the

presence of oil could be established. Mr Scandrett was granted prospector’s rights in the Geraldine area in October, 1963. He believes oil exists in the South Island and is contained in a geological belt starting near Invercargill and travelling through New Plymouth to Kapuni. In 1913 the Canterbury Petroleum Prospecting Company unsuccessfully searched for oil near Chertsey. Heavily supported by the public, the company sank a well on Mr J. Stringfellow's property and at 1600 feet there were encouraging signs of oil. At 2170 feet the bore struck sand and could not make headway. The company was wound up, but even today there are remains of the gear on the

site—a wire rope, some blocks of concrete and what appears to be the head of a shell. An Australian professor of geology is also convinced that oil exists in New Zealand. Professor E. A. Rudd, of Adelaide University, who delivered the Cawthron lecture at Nelson last November, urged priority for oil exploration in New Zealand. A saving of £3O million in overseas currency would follow the discovery of commercial quantities of oil. Professor Rudd said overseas help would be needed and there should be a lot of encouragement from the New Zealand Government. It was not fair, he said, to rely on private interests in a field where capital outlay was so heavy.