OIL PROSPECTING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 21 June 1940, Page 2

OIL PROSPECTING

WORK IN NEW ZEALAND BIG MACHINES ENGAGED STATEMENT IN HOUSE [From Our Own Parliamentary Reporter] . WELLINGTON, This Day. t An outline of the oil prospecting at c present being carried out in New Zealand was given by the Minister of r Mines (the Hon. P. C. Weob) in the t House of Representatives last night, ( when speaking in the Imprest Supply Debate. Apart from the drilling at present being done in various parts of the 2 North Island the Minister mentioned c the possibility of oil drilling being carried out in and around the Grey 1 1 district or Hokitika in the South Island. | ( He expressed the view that such were j the talent and the machinery on the £ job that if oil existed in New Zealand ' it would be discovered. J The Minister saM that over 66 ! | licenses for petroleum prospecting had 1 been issued. There were • two big machines, each costing about £130,000, ] operating, one out of Gisborne or i . Wairoa and the other in Taranaki. It r was quite possible they would have an- J other big machine at similar cost r drilling for oil somewhere out from Mt. ? Stewart or Marton. An Opposition member: Do you think 1 they’ll find it. The Minister: Yes. They are also making very intensive studies in the I * South Island and it is quite possible ! they will be drilling for oil in and! around the Grey district or Hokitika. I There were 113 of «;he very finest 1 i geophysicists that were to be obtained 1 1 ! in the world taking part in the pros- 1 | pecting. They were making a very ‘ , great study and he was quite satisfied \ that if oil existed in New Zealand the ( talent looking for it and the machines ; that were employed to prospect oil would discover it. An Opposition member inquired if - any Germans were employed. The Minister said he did not know. Those he had met were Americans. Mr S. G. Holland (Nat - nal, Christchurch North): You should know. The Minister said that if members of the Opposition had feelings that men : were engaged in the oil investigations who should not be there, it might be well for them to go to the Prime Minister and not broadcast it. The Americans he had met in connection with the prospecting stood out as excellent gentlemen. They were excellent fellows | and were doing great work. He did I not think the Opposition should go i I head hunting. Referring to production to date, the • Minister said that last year over 104.000 gallons of petroleum had been produced in New Zealand. Since oil had been tapped just on three million gallons of oil had been produced. Oil had been found in small quantities, but. prospecting had not been done before in the way it was being done now. “I think all members of the House will agree with me when I say that it would be very hard to conceive of anything being more profitable to this country than a good gusher or two of oil at the present time,” the Minister added.