Third Oil-Drilling Site Selected In Taranaki

Press, Volume C, Issue 29498, 27 April 1961, Page 16

Third Oil-Drilling Site Selected In Taranaki

(New Zealand Press Association)

NEW PLYMOUTH April 26. A third drilling site in the multi-million pound search for oil in Taranaki has been selected. Shell-8.P.-Todd Oil Services. Ltd., announced today. The site is on Palmer road. a little more than a mile south of the Kapuni No. 1 well, where a promising show of wet gas occurred in 1959 It is on the property of Mrs W. G Milham. A statement from the company's headquarters in Wellington said: “Since the promising show of gas. it has always been the company’s intention to continue work on the Manaia structure. It is only by further drilling that a reliable estimate of the quantities of available gas and condensate can be made.

“While the new site is being prepared, drilling will continue at Mangahewa No. 1 well, the deepest in New Zealand.” the statement said. "When this well has been tested, it will be possible to compare the Manaia and

Mangahewa structures. If it is found that Mangahewa appears the better prospect, it may be found desirable to drill another well there immediately. “Preparation of the new site at Kapuni. therefore, does not necessarily imply that it will be the site of the next well to be drilled. The site will be required at some stage jn the future, and negotiations have now reached a stage where work on it can conveniently begin. A start is expected within a week or so.” Mrs Milham said today that the final choice of the site was “news to her.” The area of land had not yet been purchased. She had heard nothing from the company for about a month, she said.

Daniela Improving.—T h e condition of “he American Negro singer. Billy Daniels, aged 45. is reported to be improving after his collapse last night with a suspected ruptured stomach ulcer.— Sydney, April 26.