SEARCH FOR OIL

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 102, 24 January 1940, Page 5

SEARCH FOR OIL

New Plant For Dominion MAY GO TO TARANAKI Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, January 23. Oil-boring equipment of the latest design, valued at nearly £lOO,OOO, will arrive in New Zealand in April, and will be assembled on the west coast of the North Island, ipossibly in Taranaki, to assist in the intensive search for oil that is now being carried out throughout the Dominion. This announcement was made by Mr. Charles La Mar, an oil borer, who arrived in the Monterey. He is a brother of Mr. H. L. La Mar, the drilling superintendent at Totangi, Gis r borne. Mr. La Mar said his company bad the plant on order, and it would bo capable of drilling to a depth of 15,00 ft. Though payable oil had been found at that depth in the United States, he said the usual depth was between 5000 ft. and 10,000 ft. Another oil man travelling in the Monterey is Mr. C. St. J. Bremner, a geologist for the Standard Oil Company, who is going to the East, calling at Dutch New Guinea and Burma. He said the war had not materially affected supplies of oil in the United States, as tremendous supplies of fuel were being obtained for the belligerents from Venezuela, Europe and Asia.

Mr. Bremner said that Germany was a large pre-war importer of aviation spirit, and the opinion held in military circles in the United States was that Germany would be increasingly short of supplies as the war proceeded.