DOMINION OIL QUEST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19890, 18 March 1939, Page 18

DOMINION OIL QUEST

VISIT BY GEOLOGISTS PARTY FROM AMERICA (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. Despatched by the Carter Oil Company for geological work in the oil surveys being undertaken in the Dominion, six American experts arrived yesterday by the Mariposa from Los Angeles. The party, which will operate ai New Plymouth, consists of Messrs. W. M. Erclahl, K. Kennedy. D. R. Wichert, F. Hollandsworth, D. S. Plewes and H. W. Traugh. Another passenger was Mr. H. Johnson, a prominent Los Angeles oil producer, who is touring with the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce goodwill party. He has been associated with oil production since 1902. Ha saw the first oil well brought into operation at the Spindletop oilfield ia Texas and has since been associated with the companies responsible for the drilling and development of several important areas in the United States. He said that considerable interest had been manifest in New Zealand’s prospects as an oil-producing country, but he pointed out that these potentialities had yet to be proved. An opportunity of supplying New Zealand’s requirements from within the country would be welcomed and a field in the Southern Pacific would be of very considerable importance m event of an international crisis.