TARANAKI OIL FIELDS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 24, 29 January 1929, Page 14

TARANAKI OIL FIELDS

RECONSTRUCTION SCHEME

An extraordinary general meeting of shareholders in Taranaki Oil l''ields, Ltd., is to be held at Melbourne on 25th February for the. purpose of considering resolutions relating to reconstruction of the company. The. directors explain that the cqmpauy and its subsidiary concerns have in hand (in addition to plant and equipment) sufficient money to carry on drilling operations on the present scale also geological and other activities, until approximately 30th September, 1929—if production is not developed before that date. The immediate objective is to complete the test of the two structures [ on which are situated the wells Gisborne ~so\ 1 (Jlorere) and Gisborne No. 2 (Mangaone). The directors report that "The geological data in hand support the belief that these domes exhibit the best prospects of any structures yet examined in equivalent detail in the Dominion." They further state that "in the light of the history of productive oil fields in other countries, it is not at all inconsistent with ultimate success that additional wells may have to be drilled beyond Gisborno Nos. 1 and 2 wells before adequate tests of the two structures are completed." Purchase of some .additional plant may bo essential. The funds now remaining may prove insufficient to provide for these contingencies, and the directors have therefore given earnest thought to the question of supplementing the plant. Consideration is also being given to a recommendation from the technical staff that an area of particular promise in the South Island should be test-bored. It is therefore proposed to place the company in voluntary liquidation, and to register a new company to be called "Taranaki (N.Z.) Oil Fields No Liability," the directors of Taranaki Oil Fields, Ltd., subject to approval, to sell the whole of its assets and undertaking to Taranaki (N.Z.) Oil Fields No Liability for a block of the latter company's shares (paid up to 20s per share, equal to the number of shares 'of Taranaki Oil Fields, Ltd, now issued, viz., 471,561). Shares in the new company paid up to 20s to be distributed to share holders in the old. When this procedure has been completed each shareholder- will hold in lieu of his present £1 shares in Taranaki Oil Fields, Ltd., an equal number of 30s shares in Taranaki (N.Z.) Oil Fields No Liability, paid up to 20s, subject to the No Liability provisions of the Companies Act in respect of uncalled capital represented by his share holding. Calls not exceeding Is per share o-nce in two months may bo made by the directors as shall "appear, to 1 them necessary. It is the opinion of-some intimately associated with the direction of the company that unless such a scheme as is proposed is carried through the funds in the company's hands, failing earlier oil production will be dissipated before adequate tests are completed by the Gisborne and other areas of first-class oil promise, and the search for oil in New Zealand will receive a set-back from which it may take long to recover. The directors commend the scheme as "essential to bring the company's New Zealand enterprise to fruition."