OIL PROSPECTING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 123, 23 April 1938, Page 10

OIL PROSPECTING

COMMENCEMENT SHORTLY. ON EAST COAST. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, April 22. It is expected that drilling for oil in the Taranaki and Gisborne districts on an extensive scale will start early in July. This was indicated by the Minister of Mines (Hon. P. C. Webb) in an interview to-day after a long conference the Minister had with the oil companies interested. Mr Webb was advised that the first consignment of plant will leave the United States on May 2'2 and a second consignment on May 24. Mr Webb conferred with the companies before he left Wellington by air this morning for Christchurch. He said that he had discussed drilling plans with representatives of the New Zealand Petroleum Company, Ltd., which had already been granted licenses for drilling over an extent of POO square miles in the Gisborne area and of approximately 1000 square miles in Taranaki. It had not been possible to issue licenses until the beginning of April, but already the necessary plant was being assembled. Tlie” Minister quoted the following advice received from the company: “New York advises that drilling plant and equipment have already been ordered and shipment will be made partly from the Atlantic seaboard and partly from the Pacific seaboard. The Atlantic shipment, which consists of a derrick, a Diesel drilling engine, water and fuel tankage water pumps and miscellaneous equipment comprising the items first needed, will be dispatched on May 22. The various items being obtained from the Pacific Coast have been promised for shipment by the Mariposa, leaving San Francisco on May 24. We are engaged in obtaining estimates from local firms for the fabrication and erection of a number of portable cottages for the drilling staff, and we have obtained quotations from local transport companies for delivery of the material to the drilling site.” . The Minister said that the preliminary work necessary before the installation of machinery would start almost immediately and a considerable number of men would be employed soon in construction of roads and accommodation,' and, with ordinary luck, the company hoped to start drilling operations early in July. The area on which the work would be started was situated on Mr.Dougall Williams’s property at'Totangi, in the Gisborne area. “This country where boring will start has been surveyed geopliysicallv and geologically,” Mr Webb said,‘“and the site of the first bore is already’ decided on. Needless to say, I am greatly impressed with the rapidity with which the company moved in its preparations for drilling, and 1 can only wish them the best of luck.” The Minister said that the speed ot drliling woidd depend on the type of country and the nature of the ground, but he had been told by geologists that after the first one or two holes were bored to the requisite depth, the engineers would be in a position to state fairly definitely the time it would take to bore the rest of the country. The New Zealand Petroleum Company, Ltd., has been granted four licenses for prospecting for oil, covering 10 different areas. Tlie interests behind the company are Taranaki (N.Z.) Oil Fields (no liability), Gisborne (N.Z.) Oil Fields Ltd.. Mav tangi (N.Z.) Oil Fields, Ltd., Waiapu (N Z ) Oil Fields Ltd.. Moturoa Oil Fields Ltd., the Vacuum Oil Company Proprietary Ltd., and • Oil Search, Ltd.