TARANAKI OIL-FIELD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 16 November 1907, Page 2

TARANAKI OIL-FIELD.

OPJiIIATIOXS AT MOTUKOA. THE EXPERT SPEAKS OUT. Work at tlio Taranaki Company's bores is proceeding steadily. All out Xos. 1 and 3 are temporarily shut down, mid work concentrated upon ™'° mentioned. - At No. 1, all the obstructions have Jjocii passed. The casing is being driven through new formation, being now ov«y (Kilt below the old depth, or some * below the surface. The manager (Mi P Simpson) expect* that the bure Jl ' have to £0 down another 40ft or ->olt before hard material will be found in which to permanently shut oil the At No. 3 (Samuel's) bore, the engineer and hi* staff have been busy during the past few weeks reaming and loweinig the casing in order to shut off the watcr. The piping is now embedded a considerable distance in hard rock. Mr t Simpson thought he had succeeded m } shutting off the water here, but found that water still percolated through. He ] came to the conclusion eventually that , something was wrong with the casing. , He decided to pull up the whole of the , easing, and, this being vlone, found that in the second to last length there was a hole three-eights of an inch by half an inch in extent, sufficiently large to admit a small supply of water. A new , length has hw\\ substitute and the work of lowering the casing is now proceedf ing, about 1000 feet having alrea'dy been lowered. The manager expects to be in I a position shortly to announce having obtained a perfectly water-tight well y which is absolutely essential to 'the suc--3 cess of an oil flow. Then boring through the hard strain will be resumed. 61 oc bules of oil have been met with in this hard substances, and these are regarded j as good indications, showing as they do v that the oil-bearing stratae have not ■ been passed. o Our representative saw Mr Simpson e last evening, and naked him his opinion of the present situation. "Well" he ,f said, "if you want a straight-out opinion i. I can i oil you, and anybody else for w that matter, that I am more pleased a with the hard rock we've got into in No. ( 1 3 bore. Ithan with anything (done ait e the hores yet. Now, T don't mean hy this that this circumstance spells success „ or ai big oil flow. TPs just what T con- ° sider the best of good indications. T j will not be surprised if we soon strike the oil measures. I've come across similar signs before in America. They j have panned out trumps. Small shows of oil first and then the main oil-bear- j ing stratae were struck." 1 l " Could you tell us anything further j Jl about developments at Moturoa? II "Only this—that shareholders are very Lt foolish to take notice of any street ru--10 mors about our operations, either favorable or unfavorable rumors. The di'k rectors, as they have before announced, c will acquaint the public of anything that may occur at the works." io And the future of the Taranaki field, ls what of it? queried our reporter. — Is "Well, 1 think in one quarter, which I jl need not indicate, a determined and le pre-conceived attempt has been made to bs damn not only the prospects of our ii- company, but the prospects of every ir oil prospecting eompniv in Taranaki. 1 :h can't say much for the public-spirited-iu ness or the breadth of view of some of ie your people, in places I've been used Ii- to, we would be given a chance to ir what we could do. In the same conditions as obtain here at present, we would be assisted and encouraged in j every way to thoroughly test the likely oil-bearing country, instead of being jumped upon, and the whole country warned against us af if we were a pack |t of thieves scheming to extract dollars rs from the pockets of the unwary with an ;1 illusionarv oil field. No, this sort of y. thing beats me entirely. Give us a fair go. Give us what you would give , e any * other commercial undertaking or in speculation—a chance of seeing what we jr can do. Wait till we Kavc been able to s. get to bed-rock before passing judgment. »d That- is all we nsk. I'll say this., t'hat whilst I'm manager of the Taranaki Pctrolpum Company, the shareholders- will have a fair run for-jtheir wo'iioy. There will bono hankynanky tricks U there is v o*l U <*)(■ got in payable quan/ities, well *. and good: if nob, well we will have the satisfaction of knowing that the field iS has Wn tested and proved. Mind you u this has never vet been ••done. We are [•. trying to do it now. With what luck o von must wait and see." n