TABANAKI OIL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 28 April 1914, Page 5

TABANAKI OIL.

A BLOW-OUT AT MOTUROA.

At about four o'clock yesterday afternoon, the rotary bore of the Taranaki (N.Z.) Oil wills Company, Ltd became violently active. There have been "blow-outs" at this bore during Dailv Pa\t. 7 <-f e, k' S ' ~but <sa*s Dailj IWs) "oilology" must coin a new word to describe yesterday's ebullition. It was stupendous, deafening and awe-inspinng. At a distance of almost a mile, a dull roar gave promise that here was something without equal J 1 of the common or earden 'blow-out which the sceptic is Sevser'' "T* ♦?* V'Bo^ <* the gejsei On the derrick site the scene beggared description Around the derrick itself the ground was slippery with mud, which trickle and oozed in all directions, some even finding lt? way to the road outside the derrick site But inside the derrick! Dante s inferno without the flames a subterranean Bacchanalian riot in open revolt a screaming challenge by the god who guards the oil seams against the unseemly hand of man meddling with forces which, once invoked he cannot control. You cannot hear you cannot see, you cannot bear in'your ears the screaming roar of this 'subterranean giant, this unloosed fury of fjL U£m? + W'K'i shrieking his Protest from 2400 ft below. The fumes of the gas are stifling, the noise of the bore is deafening—the derrick is a very good place to be out of. There is nothing to do, as the manager remarks, but to let this fury wear itself out and feel thankful that it has an outlet for its belchings through the sides of the upper derrick. At nine p.m. the demonstration still continued with the same activity and deafening noise. No work could be done, and no one was allowed near the derrick owing to the fire risk. At the start, some twelve barrels of pure oil were ejected from the bore and were saved. '.

*i. i 1 Saturday the manager reported that the drill had passed through Hard formation, and was entering a sticky stratum which led him to expect a strong gas exhalation before long. His expectations were certainly realised.