NEW OIL FIELDS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 September 1929, Page 2

NEW OIL FIELDS

DEVELOPMENTS iIN IRAQ

FAVOURABLE PROSPECTS

IN DOMINION

BRITISH EXPERTS MISSION.

WELLINGTON, Sept. 11. Interesting developments in the exploitation of new oil-bearing areas, especially in Mesopotamia, and '-be possibilities of finding permanent oil supplies in New Zealand and Austin,lia, were discussed by Mr R. H. Launder, an English expert, who arrived from Sydney by the Maheno yesterday on bis way to investigate Micl report upon oil-bearing areas in Moturoa. Mr Launder, who was born in London, is a geologist and oil technologist of considerable experience. He served a cadetship with the Rpy»* Dutch Shell Company and has a wide knowledge of the company’s oil-fields in the Dutch East Indies, especially in Borneo. After spending sometime ; n jq-rypt. be became superintendent for the Turkish Petroleum Company which has large concessions i;i Lmj where there are extensive oil-beaiing fields in the vilayet of Mosul.

INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS IN MOSUL.

The development rights were obtained from Iraq Government by the Turkish Petroleum Company, which was originally formed by Mr C. S. Gulbenkiari, an Armenian capitalist. The company then bad a capital of 1€2,0f.0,000 of which the Anglo-Pcrsinn Company held 47A. per cent., the Royal Dutch Shell group 22* per -onft., a French ' group 25 per cent. Later, American interests, represent'd bv the Standard Oil Companies of New York arid Now Jersey, the PanAmerican Petroleum and Transport Company, and Atlantic Refining Company, and the Gulf Oil Corporation, came in and agreed to co-operate with the British, Dutch and French groups under the direction of the Turkish Petroleum Company. Under the agreement reached, a 25 per cent, interest in the development of • the Mosul fields was given to the British, Dutch, French-and American groups, while Mr Gulbenkian now holds a 5 per cent, over-riding royalty in whatever oil may be produced. The Iraq Government will receive, a royalty of 4s. per ton of crude oil won, and 2d. per 1000 cubic feet of all natural gases sold. It is further provided that the company shall be and remain • a British company registered in Britain. and the chairman at all times must be a British subject. The Turkish Petroleum Company holds exclusive rights to exploit , the oil resources of 24 , areas covering four square miles. ■

A GREAT GUSHER. Mr Launder was in charge of operations when the famous “strike” of oil was made at Baba Gurgur, an Arab village five miles south of Ivifkuk, one of. the earliest sites chosen by the company. This ffiace had : been known to the Arabs for centuries as the “fiery furnace” becati.se of the seepages of oil and the escapes of gas, which were often on fire. The bore struck oil at about 1500 feet downv, and a great- “gusher” came in at the terrific pressure of &001 b. a square inch and at the rate of over 90,000 barrels, or nearly 7000 tons a. day—equal to the production of Burma. In Mr Launder’s ' words, the gush “blew wild” for ten days before it was capped. Two American drillers and several Arabs were overcome by the. fumes and died.

HALF A MILLION UP IN SMOKE.

There was then the problem of what to do with this great lake of 50,000 tons of crude oil which was held in a wadi by hastily tlirown-up “bunds” or dams. No use could be made of it because there was no means of getting it away. It could not be allowed to drain away into the Tigris River to spoil the irrigation waters. It could not be held because the heavy rains would have washed "it away in floods over tbo cultivated areas along the river. It was decided to burn the accumulated oil, and for days there was a terrific conflagration while the £500,000 worth went up in flame and smoke, which was visible for many miles.

A WONDERFUL PIPE LINE. Active development of Mosul oilfield was being carried on, said Mr Launder, and it would not be very long before production and export would be under way. A feature of the operations was tbo construction of a wonderful pipe-line system across hundreds of milcys of desert country, over which tribes''of wild Araibs roved, from Mosul to the Mediterranean, where storage tanks and a shipping terminal would -be built. some time there had been a dispute -as to where the terminal would be situated. French interests, behind which was the French Government, wanted it on the coast of Syria, for which France bolds the mandate from the League of Nations. On the other hand, British interests, supported by the Dutch and American people interested, wanted to avoid Syria, and it was probable that Haifa would be selected. TARANAKI PROSPECTS FAVOURABLE. Speaking of his mission to the Dominion, Mr Launder, without committing himself to any definite pro-

diction, thought the prospects of striking oil in payable quantities in New Zealand were very hopeful—quite as much so, in fact, as in Australia. He had made himself familiar with all the available geological and other data on the subject, and from that knowledge, coupled with the results actually attained, he was of the opinion that oil-boring developments were just getting to a very interesting stage. He had road the reports dealing with the operations and ho could ■say definitely that the indications were very favourable. Ho war inclined to think that most of the troubles experienced were due to, non-technical operations. For example, much trouble had been canhcd by bad casings and shutting off of water. He was confident from the information he diad had, that the employment of up-to-date methods and machinery in boring offered a very excellent chance of securing permanent production of oil. Whether the subterranean geological structures were favourable to the retention oi the oil. which undoubtedly existed, remained to be proved. Mr Launder said he had been snccjjtJly engaged to carry out a complete technological investigation of the New Plymouth (N.Z.) Oil Wells, Ltd.’s property at Motorua, and lie would be drilling there very soon. He would 1)0 leaving for New Plymouth this morning.

OPERATIONS IN AUSTRALIA.

Regarding oil prospects in Australia, Mr Launder thought that the position at the Roma bores in Queensland was not quite as premising as it had been. He was definitely of the opinion that parts of Queensland were better from the technological point of view than those already drilled on. The drilling licenses in Queensland covered huge areas of as much as 10,000 acres each, and operations had been, dissipated over too wide a stretch. He thought better results would be achieved by the concentration of operations on areas of, say, 500 acres at a time. Quite the most interesting development at the present time was that on the Warramai River, in Western Australia, where gas had been struck during the test operations that were being carried out under an English technologist.

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