SOMETHING ABOUT THE EAST COAST OIL SPRINGS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3630, 1 March 1883, Page 2

SOMETHING ABOUT THE EAST COAST OIL SPRINGS.

When tiic representatives of the Canterbury shareholders in the Southern Cross Petroleum Company went to Gisborne to attend the last general meeting- of that company they visited the -works of the South Pacific Company. Mr W. 11. Spackman, ■writing , to the Cantcrbuiy Press, gives the following interesting report of his interview with Mr Weaver, the manager: — The chairman of the company's board of advice, Mr G. Stubbs, of Gisborne, had courteously given us ;i letter of introduction tG rhe boring- manager, Mr "Weaver, a gentleman of practical boring experience, obtained by the company from Pennsylvania.. Mr Weaver evidently understands his work thoroughly, is gifted with decision of character, and knows how to look after his men, and it was from him that I obtained my information. "The place where the boring is now taking place is on the top of a high hill, which shows signs of the oil supposed to be underneath on its surface. As you ascend the hill to the top, the pools of rain water on one fciclc of the hill are perfectly clear, but 'on the other and on the extreme summit they arc covered with a thick coating of oil. Here and there as you walk among the feni, often breast high, you notice a patch of dark colored earth, and on scratching it with the foot the oil exudes on the surface ; on the pools every moment gas is continually bubbling , up, and now and then you come upon deposits of a soft, sticky, yellow oil substance, calLed paraffin butter, the value of which I believe is not yet known. After a few minutes' chat with Mr Weaver we walked clown from his house to the derrick, passing several of the butter deposits. When we got there, we found that lie had just raised the tube, an eightinch one. he had driven, and that this was the third one he had had to raise. The following- conversation then took place:— " I see you have been drawing up the lot of tubing you have been driving; if it is not asking you to let out secrets, would you naiid ielling us the reason?" " I considered ii the best course to take. I found the pipe or tube had touched just on the edge of a large boulder, and not having any solid support on the other side, had become deflected. Tho farther therefore I drove it the worse it would be, I tried to get over the difficulty, but could not, and therefore carae to the conclusion that the best and cheapest course was to start a new bore about a yard from it." •V Then that is time- and a good deal of money thrown <j/way x " Very little of cither. 1 can bore 30 or iO feet a day at first, and .the depth reached by that Lube was only 130 feet." "But might not'that difficulty occur at any depth'r" " No ; If I can get through the iirst 200 feet, I shall have no difficulty afterwards in boring. I can bore, say, 30 feet a day, and to a depth, if necessary of 3000 feet. Tho first 200 feet' is through ■jrhat wo call sur-

face accumulations, plastic clay and boulders. When that is once passed through there will be no difficulty afterwards." '' Do you see in America the same indications of oil on the surface as you do here ?" "I can't remember having , done so in th£ States, but I have seen just the same iii>—-T Canada." "Do you consider these appearances favorable?" '' Certainly. There must be a very great quantity of oil and a vast pressure of gas below the surface to cause oil to exude on the surface like it does here." " The Southern Cross Petroleum Company have sunk a shaft for oil; is that usual?" "No; I've never known or heard of its being done in America." " Then the time and money spent by the Company in shafting has been thrown away r" "I think not. The conformation of the country differs hero from the American oil region. In the Cross Company yon are now down on the papa rock, and can put a bore down 3000 ft if necessary—the difficulty I am experiencing yon will escape." " Then 3-011 would recommend boriii"- in the shaft of the Cross Company at once!" "Certainly. You have nothing to gain by continuing the shafting, and it is a loss of time and money when a bore is so much cheaper, answers the same purpose, and saves so much time." '' Do you consider then that finding oil is a certainty ? '' ' c I consider it only a question of time. I have now put down three tubes. The first failed through a defect in one of the collars, the second and third have struck on the edge of a boulder and become deflected. The ono I am now putting- down will pass by the edge of the troublesome boulder without touching it, and as I said, if I can get down '200 or so I shall bo able to bore to any reasonable depth." " If you don't strike any oil then what will you do ? ' ' "I have not considered that yet, but I should like to start a bore 150 ft further down the hill on the flat, where there are strong indications of oil. I will take you down to the place if you have time." We decided to go. Following our leader we passed down an old bullock track, struggling through the fern higher than our heads with difficulty, and scratching our faces with lawyers and bushes, every nOw ~*y and then we would come to a soft bhuk patch, which only required moving a little with the foot for the oil to come through to the surface. After travelling half a° mile or so our guide stopped and showed us where a small excavation had been made. There wm a small depth of accumulated rainwater, through which the bubbles of g-as were continually escaping, and tlie surface was covered with oil. After -we hud stood looking- at it for a few minutes, I said, " A paragraph appeared in the Lytteltonv Times of the Gth February to this effect:— 'Gisborne Petroleum.—A letter has been received by Mr W. Wilson from Gisborne, stating that an excavation had been made on the side of the hill at the South Pacific Petroleum Company's mine, and a largo deposit of paraffine mineral discovered. This mineral, or butter, is worth £15 a, ton.' May we sec this place ? " '' The statement is entirely untrue. Paraf - fine butter is here, and deposits of paraffiue in large quantities, but no such deposit has been discovered or looked for since I came here, two months ago ; and no such report has ever been sent from the mine. It was probably inserted by some one from interested motives.'' "What is the value of the crude oil in America ': " "It varies very much. I see by the last papers! received from Buffalo, N.Y., that the selling price was then, in December, about Idol H cents per barrel. I see fourteen million barrels were sold on December 10th afabout that price." '' I believe the wells vary very much in the quantity they discharge ?'" "Yes. The yield of oil wells varies from a very great quantity to a very small one ; say from 210,000 barrels a day to two barrels or even less. A well will pay that yields twelve barrels a day, if it is in a good position and easily accessible, but of course whether it is payable or not depends very -\ much on its locality. Some wells will give oil in vast quantities daily, and keep on for years ; others only a very little oil, mixed -with a, gimt <leul of salt water, and that is one of the proofs put forward for the theory that the oil is a marine deposit." '' Can you generally recover your pipes if they go wrong? " " Yes. I can draw up the pijocs, from a depth of 2000 feet if I have the tools. This was only drawn up from about 130 feet." " I sec you are boring on the very top of the hill. Would you not be likely to find the oil sooner down yonder at the bottom on the low ground ?" " Not necessarily. The best indications of the oil are here, and a few hundred feet of boring, more or less, is of little consequence. Very many of the best wells have been bored in Pennsylvania from the top of a hill like this." " Does the stratum you are going through f rom time to time tell you in any way when you are approaching oil ?" _ "No. Oil may be adjacent to any particular stratum, but you generally when you are very near to the oil by the volumes of the gas escaping. Even after finding - the oil the gas sometimes will be in such quantities as to prevent altogether the now of the oil for several days,'' After struggling back tlu-ough the feni, we again passed the derrick where the men were making the necessary preparations for starting the now bore. Going beyond it some seventy or eig-hty yards, Mr Weaver gathered a handful of dry fern, lighting which, he threw it on the top of a small pool of water where the oil had collected, j and in a few minutes a large portion of tbe surface was covered with fierce flames. This process w;is repeated on the surface of several other pools, the flames lasting for some fifteen minutes. We were told that a pool a little further off, which had been set on fire by a gentleman visiting the mine some time ago, had been found by him still on fire the next day. The same pools can always be set in flames after a few days waiting, as the oil is always coming through. Where the old company used to work the ground is soft and oily. We wandered over a good portion of it, finding oil indications in many jilaces. The Company's property is about 7000 acres. Not only on all of this are there signs of oil, but the surface indications extend at intervals for nearly eighty miles. One of the eight-inch pipes, the first put down, was still in the ground to a depth of IGOft. Lighting a bit of greasy tow, the m.inag-er dropped it down the pipe ; in less than half a minute the gas accumulated in the pipe took fire, and we heard a noise like thunder rumbling for perhaps twenty seconds, seemingly in tho interior of the earth, and then the air and gas came out with a rush from the top of the pipe. Anyone who thinks that it A would be possible to hocus the ground and produce the visible indications by the industrious distribution of a few barrels of petroleum, should put his hand or head over the top of that eight-inch pipe when a lighted fuse is dropped down it, and ho • would then soon alter his opinion. If 1000 \ barrels of oil were emptied over one square mile of the company's property such a show could not be produced as is visible everywhere for nearly eighty miles. I have been asked by numerous inquiries what I think of the prospects of the two com. panics, but I would prefer on that point to say nothing. That oil exists, and in larn-e quantities, is beyond any doubt. Whether it will be struck, and when struck be profitable to both or either company, is the question of the future. If anj'one wishes to invest in tho company's shares let him go and see for himself, and invest or not as he thinks fit. There are yet many difficulties to be overcome by the South Pacific 1 Company, not the least of which is the distance from the coast. Of the success or failure of both I have formed my own opinion, but as I don't wish to influence the share market either one way or tho other I prefer to keep it to myself. If the existence of what may or may not either npvy- or perhaps at some future time be a source of great gain tq the colony bo 11 lit, tie better known through this article, my purpose in writing it will have been answered. We returned to Gisbome to find Mr Craig still busy over the books, and without anything taking place worthy of notice. The next day was tho company's meeting. As between ourselves and the Napier people we had some 25,000 votes against 6000 or 7000 hchi Iμ Gisborne, the old Board kuv Ibcro was nothing for it but a graceful surrender, which they made accordingly. /- We elected our representatives without am> difficulty,- held a Board meeting the next morning, and accomplished successfully the purposo for which wo had been sent, W. H. Spacksia* Clu-istchurch, February 20th, lSttf'