The Daily News FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30. TARANAKI PETROLEUM CO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 263, 30 October 1908, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30. TARANAKI PETROLEUM CO.

Tile deposits of petroleum ill Taranaki have so far .ballled the elforts of the * oil companies to turn them to proiitable account, but tile difficulties. as should now be well known, are infinitely more physical 1 liaa speculative. While the netu.il producing capacity of the oil veins llus never lieen proved, th-i bores at -Uoluroa iiave abundantly V monstrated tliat oil covers an area of • country siitiicieiil to abolish Ihe "poc ket" theory, 'file work of development has, therelure. so far as iMoturoa i is concerned, passed I lie singe ot preliminary and speculative prospecting. I The dilliculties ill the way of the successful proving of the field are, as we have stated, physical ones, principal among which is the c|uestion of shutting out the water. !>o far as the Taranaki Petroleum Co. (which holds its second annual meeting of shareholders to-day) is concerned, work has during the past year been principally confined to successive attempts to obtain a "dry" well. This, we are persuaded, is the only correct, pol.ry to pursue; indeed, had the company gone oil sinking bore after ibore without thoroughly proving any one of them, it would speedily have exhausted itself through want of funds. There is nothing to be gained now by finding fault with t'.ie

policy of a previous year; the work n then accomplished has not been lost, ij More money, perhaps, was spent on tile r , new bore than the result so far achiev- d ed warranted, and the company would b have been the richer had funds 'been ]i conserved until the earlier bores had f been proved profitable or otherwise. At \ the same time, tire sinking of the additional bores proved one important fact conclusively, viz.. thai oil is distributed J over a fairly wide area. * The directors, we consider, adopted j a. wise plan when they decided, on tile -j score of economy, tu cease operations [ at bores number 4 and 0, and confine j their attention to the "Birthday" aid t numbers 2 and 3. Unfortunately for J the company, the promising "Birthday" J well had to 'be abandoned, for tlie pre- ( sent, at least, owing to circumstances ' over which neither the directors nor the present management had any control. There is every reason to believe that the once liighly-promismg outlook for this bore will yet be realised. An [ accident at a considerable depth, however, prevented thorough exploitation of tlie well, and after a considerable expenditure of time and money in efforts to rectify the damage, the work was discontinued for the meantime, and operations concentrated on numbers 2 and 3. We have little doubt that the "BirtJiday" bore will yet, wlvcn tli clearing of the not insurmountable obstacles in the well has been accomplished, realise tire hopes which were centred round it a couple of years ago. For the greater part of the year* accordingly, the energies of the company have been expended on numbers Z and 3. From the latter great things were expected, as oil had previously been found in this well, once known as "Samuel's." Here, however, the unsatisfactory nature of the strata has contrived to defeat every attempt to shut oil' water. Time after time the object was apparently aecomplisiied, but a few hours invariably had another disappointment in store. It can readily he undeistood that nothing but very hard rock could, at so great a depth and where the pressure to tile square inch must be so enormous, successfully withstand the pressure of the water outside the casing. The most minute percolation, within a very short space of time, would shatter any ordinary obstacle, exactly as nas. happened in this well, 'lhe water pressure has on every occasion so far burst through the strata into which the casing had ibeen sunk .to shut the water out of the bore. The best of oil indications have 'been ill evidence all along, but, as all interested in the industry are now aware,V no good can be accomplished until water is absolutely excluded. The methods so far tried of dealing with the water trouble are the least expensive, and have by no means exhausted the known systems of shutting oil water. Some of these, however, although efficacious, are extremely costly. We eo-,1-sider, therefore, the management is thoroughly justified in pursuing the present policy, though it may be tedious, before embarking on expensive experiments. lhe wisdom of the policy has, moreover, since the annual report of the company was issued a week or two ago. been proved by the gratifying developments at the number 2 11011° lit this bore what is presumed to lie lhe rich vein struck by tile late .Mr. (ieorge Fair in the "Birthday" well has been successfully tapped, and, as readers are aware, is at the ipresent moment giving a good supply of oil. What is particularly cheering, however, is the fact that water has been completely shut out of the well.

At no »tag« of the company's operations has tile prospect 01 a genuine tiiiil loeing given to tiie oil measures been more promising. Provided always that nothing uniuward occurs in the working of wis hole, its producing capacity snould soon 'be kaown. Tlie.'e is a much more 'hopeful feeling amongst shareholders to-day that at any period dm jug the past year, and accordingly criticism by the street-corner would-be experts is not so strongly in evidence. A section of shareholders, however, is ever 011 the outlook for pegs whereon to hang the blame for non-success, and the directors and management have accordingly ;been subjected to a good ileal of hostile hut unwarranted criticism. It is hopeless, however, to ex peel to please everynody, ami we are satisfied that the great majority of Uie shareholders appreciate tile (work ol' their representatives. The management of the concern has involved very considerable demands 011 the time of the directors, and given tliein a great deal of worry. The physical break-down of the chairman of directors, ilr. D. Berry, was, we believe, due in some measure to the exactions of his onerous oliice, 10 which he devoted almost all his time. Some reasonable recompense for the work performed by the directors, particularly iby the chairman, should Tjo provided. The laborer is worthy of his hire, whatever his calling, and wc .consider it is unfair to expect business men, with heavy private claims upon their time, to devote much of that time

to tin- affairs of a large undertaking like that of the Petroleum Company without some fair reenmpen.se. Mea'.i time, and in anticipation of the annual meeting this afternoon, it is to be hoped that shareholders will take advantage of the opportunity afforded them of visiting the bore this morning, aud seeing for themselves exactly what is the actual position of affairs,