TARANAKI OIL. ITS PRESENT AND FUTURE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 150, 22 December 1911, Page 8

TARANAKI OIL. ITS PRESENT AND FUTURE.

Mr. H. J. Brown, managing director , of the Oil Trust, Ltd., London, who has ■' been spending some time ou the Taranaki oil field, but more particularly at ■ New Plymouth, is in Wellington. When ' he arrived in New Zealand a few weeks - ago he waa interviewed by a Post re- " presentative. To-day he fulfilled a ;; promise then made*that, having^ person- ,' ally seen the field, "ha would accord an interview on the subject. Since his arf rival much work has been done in con- - nection with the flotation of a company • to take over the Taranaki Petroleum Company's property and to form the Taranaki (New Zealand) Oil Wells, Ltd. Mr. Brown's impressions of the field are now formed at first hand. He has ' been and seen for himself, and he returns 7 to New Plymouth to-day." "The prce- • pects of the New Plymouth fields, he ' said, "are as good as 'i^ have ever seen* anywhere, aud I have visited oil fields' all over the world. New Zealand is so 1 ' isolated that those interested in oil have '» not given it the attention it deserves. < But for a oreakdown in health I shouirl . not have been out here. I had been informed that the New Plymouth fields . liad wonderful prospects. I had rimenv . bered the rich quality of the oil, but not before I saw for myself did I thinK ■ ■ the prospects were so great as they are. .. '"Ihere is no gamble in it at all, be- »* cause you in New Zealand have proved that the oil is there. It is only a ques».'tion of how far if extends. That can I only be proved by the indications. You ' ; have had oil flowing continuously at New *■ 'Plymouth for over two years. We are Ingoing to put down a big well when the sew company is started, and shall go down 6000 feet if necessary, then withdraw the casing, perforate it and send it down again, pumping the oil as it ■ flows in from all the strata which the bore has penetrated. No. 2 well is still " giving 100 barreka week, but I feel sure ;;100 barrels a day could be pumped from ■ that well, and it is always better to ■■ pump. "Geographically, the whole , district '* 'would require three or four months to • etudy, but I am inclined to think that ,* it extends well round the landward of Egmont." - The new company proposed to erect ?,one unit of a refining plant. . On going ' into the matter of protective duties, and consumption of kerosene, - motor spirit paraffin, and other .product* and ' by-products of crude oil, Mr. Brown said it would pay to erect a refinery and import the crude oil for meeting New ' Zealand's own domestic consumption of "such commodities. At least six wells of 5000 ft or 6000 ft ■would be put down by the new company. He 'did not fear competition' from the Standard or "Shell," or anyother company, because of the protection that would be afforded New Zealand oil, and because refined' it was 20 per cent, better than any other oil that he knew of. That had been scientifically demonstrated. One unit of a refinery would meet but one-tenth of New Zealand's own consumption of oil and products. New, Plymouth was admirably situated when, compared with American fields in regard to shipment, as under tthe jee of the Sugar Loaf, according to th« weather, tank steamers could lie in security rfhile being laden, from a' pipe line not more than a mile away, whereas pipe lines in America were hundreds of miles long, and then not always terminating at a deep-water' port of shipment.