PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS PRODUCTION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19513, 16 February 1926, Page 9

PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS PRODUCTION

NEW ZEALAND LEGISLATION. A paper on the subpcct of New Zea- j land legislation dealing with petroleum I ; and natural gas production was read by ; ; Mr A. H. Kiinbell (Under-secretary of |i the Mines Department) at the Mining = Conference at Dunedin. Mr Kimball traced the progress of 1 the legislation on the subject from 1892, and went on to state that he could not contend that even now the existing law was at all satisfactory. By far the greater portion of the ; petroliferous bearing land in the Dominion was alienated by the Crown i many years ago, and much of that land ; had been closely sub-divided in seveial 1 portions of the Dominion. The land j so alienated was held under many . different tenures. In some cases the j mineral rights had been reserved by j the Crown, but in other cases that was t not done. In addition there were Na- • tive lands and many kinds of endow- I ments, the titles to which included the ■ minerals. It would therefore be seen that in order to obtain the right to prospect for and win petroleum great difficulties and large expenditure had to be incurred in obtaining such rights, and it had been found occasionally impossible to induce the land owner to sign an agreement to lease the petroleum rights except at a prohibitive i cost. ! i

What was really required was to re- i ! peal all the provisions of the existing : i law and to pass a Bill dealing specially i with petroleum. The ideal principle of ! dealing with rights of this kind would = be for the Crown to reserve to itself i the sole right to grant a license to pros- I pect, or a lease to win oil. Where the petroleum did not belong the the Crown ; the owners of the land would, of course, be entitled to be paid adequate compensation for any land which might be 1 damaged or occupied by prospecting ; and boring, and also a reasonable rate of royalty as well as rental. Provision could be made empowering the Gover-nor-General to declare portions of the Dominion which were believed to be i petroliferous lands to be oil districts, i The owners and others interested in i such lands could be given an opportun- 1 ity of lodging well-grounded objections i against the issue of such an order, and i for such objections to be inquired into : and reported upon by some responsible ! person. The Governor-General could be : empowered to decide whether or not j the objections should be upheld either f wholly or in part. It must be distinctly understood that 1 these views •were put forward merely i for the purpose of discussion, and that i they must not be construed as repre- i seating the view of the Minister of i ? Mines or of the Government.

Mr Kimbell stated that the paper was presented mainly with a view to clearing up several difficulties which now existed in attaining rights to prospect for oil. Lawyers in different parts had been unable to determine what was the best procedure to follow, as the law was both comprehensive and complicated.

Professor Waters said that he had had various letters expressing regret that the legislation regarding this matter was so loose.

Mr Tacon (Wellington) stated that in the Near East the position regarding oil prospecting was very similar to what it was in New Zealand. Prior to the war, there had been extensive borings made along the shores of the Sea of Marmora, but -with no result. Eventually, a comprehensive geological survey had been carried out, and the oil had been found nearly JOO miles away from the point where the seepage had occurred. He maintained that Mr Kimbell had put his finger on the spot -when he asserted that the whole country should be opened up. Another point was that all rights granted should be in British hands, for not only in time of peace, but in time of war, it might happen that we had to depend entirely on oil for our transport.

Mr Kimbell said that he hoped that the conference would pass a remit which would ultimately be brought before the Government.

On the motion of Professor Park a hearty vote of thanks was accorded Mr Kimbell and was carried by acclamation.