Production at Moturoa oilfield to cease
(New Zealand Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, July 24. The Moturoa oilfield at New Plymouth — the second-oldest in the world — will stop production at the end of this month. As well, its production company, Egmont Oil Wells, Ltd, will be wound up.
The decision was announced today by Mr D. H. Tudhope. chairman of the Shell, BP Todd oil consortium, which owns Egmont Oil Wells, Ltd. The Moturoa field has produced oil and gas since 1931. The first well was drilled in 1865. Mr Tudhope said the exploration and production licence held by Egmont Oil Wells would expire at the end of the month. The consortium would not apply for renewal “because rapidly decreasing production has now reached a level that is no longer economic.” The field now produces about 3000 gallons of crude
oil a month, compared with 25,000 gallons a month in 1952, when the field’s production was at its peak. Mr Tudhope said the consortium had no plans for further development drilling in the district. The production company would be wound up and its assets — the three wells, pumping equipment and the small oil refinery — would be taken over by the marketing company, Taranaki Oil and Gas, Ltd. This company still processed some of the Shell, BP, Todd sludge which came from tankers’ ballast and from the Paritutu oil tanks.
“The decision to end production was not easy,” Mr Tudhope said, "particularly
when one remembers the long history of oil production in New Plymouth.” Plans were in hand to preserve one of the well-head
sites by the waterfront so that New Plymouth’s important role in the country’s record of oil exploration would not be/ forgotten, he said. The other two wells will be sealed with cement plugs. Today’s announcement came exactly two months after a statement from the consortium, (which took over Egmont Oil Wells about eight years ago) saying that the field was far from depleted and that there had been no decision to close it.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32977, 25 July 1972, Page 3
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335Production at Moturoa oilfield to cease Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32977, 25 July 1972, Page 3
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