OIL IN NEW ZEALAND

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 140, 15 June 1928, Page 12

OIL IN NEW ZEALAND

VVQRK AT GISBORNE Mr.- Colin: Fraser,- of -Melbourne, managing director of the Taranaki Oilfields, Ltd., who' has just visited' the scene of the company's drilling operations, spoke enthusiastically to a representative of "The Post" of the prospects of the wells. He said that the geological data accumulated as the result of persistent work over a relatively long period were such as to amply justify the expectation that commercial oil will be found in the East Coast region. The areas now being tested by the sinking of the Gisborne Nos. 1 and 2 wells are located in the vicinity of Morere, and therefore.only some six or seven miles distant from Waikokopu Harbour, potentially a good shipping port, i" Hawkes Bay. Mr. Fraser added: "Geological structure and conditions in both these areas are regarded as particularly favourable for the accumulation of oil at reasonable depths. Gisborne No. 1 well ia now down just on 3000 feet, and through ' tertiary shales and sandstones,_ is now uearing the cretaceous series. The first prospective oil bearing sand is expected to be reached in this well at an early date, and within the next thousand feet the sandstone horizon which is responsible for the oil seepage at Waitangi .Hill should be met. "Gisborne No. 2.we11, distant some o}a miles from No. 1 well, is down about six hundred feet. The prospective oil sands to be-looked for here are the same as m No. 1 well, but the drilling depths to reach the same should be somewhat less. "The strata in both wells has proved more difficult to drill than was anticipated, and progress therefore is slower than one could wish for. ' _ < "The company is at present carrying on no drilling operations in the Taranaki Province." . Mr. Fraser also stated that greatly increased interest was being taken in the search for oil in Australia, particularly in Queensland. Dr. Woolnough, the Queensland Government geologist, however, has expressed the opinion that owing to the meagre geological data available on the plains of Queensland, which were mostly drift covered,- the search for commercial oil, even in the vicinity of the Roma wells, which disclosed the existence of oil and gas, was destined to prove difficult and expensive.