OIL PROSPECTS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 79, 3 April 1914, Page 2

OIL PROSPECTS

IN GISBORNE DISTRICT. An interesting report on the natural gas and oil deposits in the GisborneEast Cape district has been furnished to the Hon. W. Fraser (Minister of Mines) by Mr. P. G. Morgan, Director of Geological Survey. After alluding to previous surveys of the district, Mr. Morgan deals with the question of the outburst of gas in some parts, and he says :— " Several distinct oil seepages or springs are_ known in the Gisborne-East Cape district. The most important of these is a series of seepages at Waitangi Hill, which have been fully /described in N.Z.G.S. Bulletin No. 9 (pp. 36-39). A second oil spring known as Dobbie's. Totangi, Tangihanga, Oil-spring occurs in the Totangi Valley, Tangihanga Block (Waiiwhu S.D.), about 16 miles as the crow flies west-north-west from Gisborne." Oil seepages have been found 111 other _ places and in some localities ozokerite (mineral wax) has been found. In one spot the magnetic needle is deflected much and irregularly from its usual position ? aft occurrence which may possibly be important as an indication of petroleum Mr. Morgan concluded his report by making the following _ recommendations : " Since the possibilities of oil near Gisborne are probably as great as at Whatatutu or in the Waiapu district, a detailed geological survey of the survey districts of Waikohu, Waimata, Whangara, Patutahi. and Turanganui may be regarded as a pressing requirement at the present time. The survey of the Whatatutu sub-division, made several years ago, requires .some revision, owing to the cretaceous (chalky) rocks which are the probable source of the oil and gas, not having been separated from the miocene rocks. After the completion of the proposed survey near Gisborne, it will be advisable to extend detailed work northward from the Whatatutu sub-division towards Waiapu and East Cape. Not until the general geology of the district has been mastered can boring areas be recommended with any confidence. Since cretaceous rocks are almost certainly the source of the oil. and. are more likely to contain pools of petroleum than the overlying miocene strata, special attention must be paid to them. Their structure, owing to masking by the probably uncomfortable miocene rocks, will be difficult to unravel, and without doubt numerous trial bores must be made before sufficient information for the oil drillers' requirements can bo collected.