THE SEARCH FOR OIL

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 210, 21 September 1937, Page 8

THE SEARCH FOR OIL

-Press Association.)

Five Companies Engaged in New Guinea EXCELLENT PROSPECTS

(By Telegrapli-

AUCKLAND, Last Night. The oil belt that runs through the Hast Indies, Sumatra and Borneo has now been dcfinitely traeed to New Guinea, and, whether or not there is oil there in payable commercial quantities, there is certainly everj prospect of increasingly numerous discoveries of it both in Papua and the mandated territory of New Guinea, said 31 r. J. Ward Williams, an American explorer and mining enginecr, who was a through passenger by the 3Iariposa from Sydney after leading an expedition into the unexplored country between the Fly and Sepilc rivers. He said the best possibilities seemed to him to be outside the present oilboring operations on the dofined concossion areas, where exploratory work had been going on for some time. Fire companies were busily pushing ahead. with the preliminary work, he said, and although nothing definite had yet been obtained ,tho geographical and geophysical work had almost been completed, and one company had started drilling He thought they had excellent prospects, but the outlook was cven better iu those parts outside these companies' concessions. Mr. Ward Williams led his expedition into the interior mainly to find new gohl deposits, but although he said there wero a number, of smallcr. ones, he thought the Bulolo field was the only. really valuable one in the country. His experienco caused him to believc that there would not be another onc. In oil, however, the future was much brighter, if it was established that oil, which was undoubtedly there, existed in payable quantities.