OIL RESOURCES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 7 June 1924, Page 9

OIL RESOURCES.

BRITAIN’S SMALL SHARE.

By Cable —Press Association —Copyright. LONDON, June 5.

Dr. Dunstan, Council of Chemistry, and Mr James Kewley, Council of the Institution of Petroleum Technologists, lecturing to the Mining and Metallurgical Congress at Wembley, pointed out that the British oil resources were very small compared with those of the United States. Only 2 per. cent, of the wcrld’s supply of petroleum was Imperial in its origin.

Referring to Australia, the lecturers stated, on the authority of Mr E. C. Andrews, geologist, that gas samples from numerous prospecting bores almost all proved dry-except at Roma. The conditions in South Eastern Australia appeared similar to the India-. Peninsula. What little was known of tho great North-Western area -suggested that conditions were similar to the eastern fields of the United States. The conclusion drawn was that, despite oil indications, in Queensland, New South Wales, and Westralia there was little hope of finding petroleum in commercial quantities.

Dr. Dunstan, referring to New Zealand, quoted Professor Easterfield and Dr. McClelland to show that petroleum was found in many localities, but New Plymouth was the only source likely to produce commercial quantities.