Dispute Over New Petrol Company

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32194, 13 January 1970, Page 12

Dispute Over New Petrol Company

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 12. An Auckland director of Republic Petroleum Corporation (N.Z.), Ltd (Mr N. W. Thom), said today that a Press Association report of a statement made in Hamilton on Saturday by Mr T. C. Ort was substantially incorrect and had been made by Mr Orr without the authority of the company.

Mr Thom, who is also solicitor to the company, said neither Mr Orr nor Mr J. E. Knight had retained any interest in their petroleum prospecting licences after selling them to the Republic Mineral Corporation of Houston (Texas) in July, last year. “Neither Mr Orr nor Mr Knight holds any shares in the American or New Zealand companies,” Mr Thom said. Mr Orr said in his earlier statement that Mr Knight and he would retain 10 per cent of the shares in the New Zealand company, and that their drilling rights had not yet been transferred. Drilling would not be undertaken until the seismic

survey expected to begin soon, had been completed and the resulting data evaluated by the company’s geologists in Texas, Mr Thom said today. The company hoped drilling would be able to start on its proposed five-well programme during the last quarter of 1970. Mr Orr on the other hand said that drilling would begin as soon as the company was set up, early next month. Mr Thom confirmed the official statement issued from Auckland on Friday that a prospectus was being made available to sharebrokers on February 2 for an issue of two million shares of 50c each to the public on February 16.