Oil Search To Start Soon

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 1

Oil Search To Start Soon

The well is being drilled for the BP-Shell-Todd exploration consortium and will be the first in Canterbury since 1914. A test well near Chertsey in that year proved unsuccessful

The four-legged derrick, rising 142 ft from its platform, will be winched to its vertical position today or tomorrow. The rig has been brought

from Winton where it was used for an unsuccessful test bore two years ago. Four diesel-electric generators and a big pump are already on the site of two acres and a half leased from Mr Saunders. Mud tanks are being installed, and an excavation about the size and depth of a 50yd swimming pool has been made by machinery to take the cuttings from the well. Non-stop Drilling About 20 men will work the rig 24 hours a day when drilling begins. The well is being sunk by the New Zealand Oil Exporation Company, Ltd, for the BP-Shell-Todd consortium. World Wide Petroleum Services, Ltd. a United States firm, is supplying field technology. Mr C. K. Freese, one of the two foremen drillers supplied by World Wide Petroleum, said yesterday that he had been flown from America a fortnight ago to work on the well. He had worked on oil wells in New Zealand before.

“The well may go down to 7500 ft—or it may not,” said Mr Freese. “When we hit granite (compressed greywacke) it is the finish. We were to go down to 5000 ft in another hole in New Zealand, but hit granite at 2500ft—and finish.”

The granite is rock metamorphosed by heat, and the heat was such that any petroleum would have been burnt up when the change took place millions of years ago. Oil-well drilling in New Zealand can cost from $3OOO

to $3300 an hour. Mr Freese said he did not know how much the Brookside well would cost. “We haven’t even studied the drilling programme in the field yet The big thing is to get the preparation work well done. Once we start drilling we don’t want to stop.” The drilling mud made on the site will be forced down the inside of the hollow stem

through the bit. The mud, after returning to the surface outside the drillstem, is carried back to the tanks through pipes. The drill cuttings are jetted out into the settling pond, and the mud used again for drilling. Water for the project will be pumped from a nearby creek, or a well for water may be sunk on the site. The drilling superintendent

on the site and the two foremen drillers are Americans. The -crew have been seeking accommodation in the area. A few houses are available, but the crew want furnished quarters, and most are living in Christchurch. At present only eight men, including electricians and welders are employed at the site, but when the derrick is up the number will increase.