HOPE ABANDONED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20106, 28 November 1939, Page 6

HOPE ABANDONED

TOTANGI DRILLING

DRY WELL TO 5700 FT.

TRANSFERENCE OF PLANT NEW SITE AT MORERF. Foreshadowed in recent weeks by the accumulation of difficulties in dealing with drilling obstacles at great depth, the decision of the New Zealand Petroleum Company, Limited, to abandon its No. 1 well site at the Totangi Dome was .announced to-day in the lengthiest bulletin yet issued by the management. Drilling activity is to be transferred to the new Morere site. "The New Zealand Petroleum Company. Limited . advises that after reaching a depth of 5700 ft.. drilling at Totangi No. 1 well is discontinued,” states the bulletin.

“This step was decided on. with great reluctance, because of the apparent impossibility of reaching a greater depth on account of the unprecedentedly difficult drilling formation encountered. While the depth reached was not conclusive, the experience gained will prove of great value when the next well at Morere, is drilled. “Construction of the road to the Morere site is well advanced, and it is expected that the transfer of the drilling plant and material from Totangi to Morere will commence about the middle of December. Conditions Better at Morere

“It is anticipated that drilling conditions at Morere will be easier than those at Totangi. as the strata is less steeply tilted than at Totangi. Directional drilling equipment is available for use as required, right from the commencement of operations, and drilling experience gained at Totangi can be used to great advantage. Present indications are that operations will commence on the Morere site early next year. “It is anticipated that drilling equipment for use in the Taranaki province will arrive early in March. Erection will' be commenced immediately on arrival, and thereafter simultaneous tests will be in progress on both sides of the North Island.” It is almost two years since the operations of the New Zealand Petroleum Company were commenced in the Dominion, the company being formed to pool the interests of investors in New Zealand, Australia and the United States. The Vacuum Oil Company first showed an interest in the possibility of developing oil sources in New Zealand in 1931. when it sent a party of geologists to the Dominion, headed by Dr. Jablonski, with instructions to make a complete .survey of the situation. Legislative Changes Made On the return of that party to the United States, it seemed that the chance of Vacuum Oil taking a further active part was small; but early last year, as a result of legislation amendments which freed oil-de-velopment exploration from many hindrances which had previously existed, there was a rapid recovery of interest. The holders of old oil-ex-ploration lights were given representation. on a profit-sharing basis, in the company formed to prosecute drilling in various promising localities in the Dominion, and the Gisborne district was selected as the field most likely to yield early results.

On October 12. 1938, the drill was spudded in at the Totangi Dome, and in the intervening 13 months expert drillers, whose pooled experience covers work in a large number of oilfields in various parts of the globe, have discovered that New Zenlana has its own peculiar problems and obstacles.

It is said that nowhere in the worlo are conditions quite like those at Totangi so far' as drilling handicaps arc concerned, and the lvstory of the efforts, to get down to a conclusive depth there is a tale of repeated minor disappointments, leading to the final and reluctant decision to abandon the well and try again elsewhere in the district.

No Variation in Totangi Strata

Throughout the total drilling period there has been no change in the formation through which the drill has penetrated. The earliest bulleans ot the company reported that the drill was in hard tuflaceous sandstone, and the description has never changed. Cores of rock taken from the hole a. varying depths have given ever} appearance of having come from a smooth unbroken seam, yet in the later stages of drilling at Totangi the company has repeatedly found that caving has filled the hole for distances up to 700 ft.

In efforts to check the caving tendency, casing has been run and cemented at horizons much less deep than had been intended, and this in turn has resulted in a lessening of the diameter of the hole by steps much closer than was contemplated at the outset. Recently the drillers have been working with a small-gauge tool, and when that was resorted to, it was apparent that unless a break in the strata developed soon, the hole would be a failure. No such break has been found, and the worst fears consequently have been realised with the abandonment of the effort at Totangi. The conviction that oil is to be found in this district, and that the geological formation is favourable to the formation of reservoirs of petroleum oil is still held by the company’s geologists, and the projected well at Morerc will be watched with the deepest interest not only by those financially concerned with the success of the New Zealand .Petroleum Company, but also by those who hope to see a. new and invaluable industry established in the neighbourhood of Gisborne.