POVERTY BAY OIL FIELDS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2298, 17 September 1908, Page 3

POVERTY BAY OIL FIELDS.

THE GEOLOGICAL ItEPOHT. [Special to “Times.”] WELLINGTON, Sept. 16. lit regard) to the Poverty Biy oil fields, the geological survey report says: “Geologically, ocononiio interest centres around the occurrence in tlie area of oil and gas springs, espeot-, ally-in the neighborhood of Waiiangi' Hill. In order to indicate areas in which petroleum may be expected to occur, geological work must bo done with the utmost detail and care, and outcrops of solid strata must bo most accurately located oil a plan. Consequenlv tho work is of necessity slow and tedious, and our operations up to the present have been confined mainly to an area within a radius of six miles from Waitangi Hill. In general it nvav bo said that ideal conditons exist where a relatively thick porous stratum known to bo pretoliperibus~is ovorlain by gontly . folded inipervous stratum showing no pronounced) faulting, but whether these ideal conditions obtain or not at Waitangi Hill can't, at present bo stated. There are abundant surface indications of oil, as shown by natural petroleum springs. From investigation up to the present time it is not clear whether the petroliferious strata •arts exposed at the surface at this point or whether tho presence of these indications is not due to the petroliferious, strata having been tapped at some distance below the surface by a faulty plane- or break. It must- bo stitpd that the folding in the subdivision is most irregular and erratic, and that faulting -in various parts is distinctly conspicuous l . • Also, it ij» noteworthy that the several petroleum springs in this locality appear in general along a'more or less definite line which would suggest til it they axe along a fault. In summing up it may be stated that there -are fair chances of discovering a reservoir of petroleum in porous strata in the locality of Waitangi Hill, though owing to the possibility of faults in the folds having allowed much of the petroleum originally present to escans there can be no absolute certainty on this point.”