SEARCH FOR PETROLEUM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 85, 30 September 1911, Page 2

SEARCH FOR PETROLEUM.

OPERATIONS IN NEW ZEALAND. The following reference to the oil industry was inside by Mr. F. Reed, inspecting engineer of mines, in the annual report upon the goldfields of the Dominion: —"The activity in petroleum speculation during 1910 extended to New Zealand, and increased interest was shown in drilling operations in the Poverty Bay, Taranaki and Lake Brunner districts, at all of which surface indications of petroleum are observable. "At Taranaki the most extensive operations are those carried out by the Taranaki Petroleum Company (capital, £120,000, in £1 shares). Upon this property, situated at Moturoa, several holes have been drilled in rocks of the miocene age. From wells 1, 2 and 3 about 270,000 gallons of high-grade crude mineral oil. having an average percentage of 97 of distilled oils, had been by May 3, 1911, obtained, thereby winning the Government bonus of £2500 offered for the first 250,000 gallons of mineral oil produced in New Zealand. This property is under option to the Oil Trust, Ltd., a London company. "For testing their extensive territory at Kotuku, near Lake Brunner, the Consolidated Gold fields of New Zealand 'are importing a powerful drill. Exudations and oil indications extend over half a mile, and several holes have been put down by former operators, the deepest being 821 feet, but in none of them was oil in quantity proved. "At Waitangi Hill, about 32 miles by road morth of Gisborne, Poverty Bay, exudations of petroleum occur, and upon this evidence boring operations were commenced in 1874, and intermittently continued, the two deepest wells being 1400 ft and 700 ft respectively, in miocene rock. From no well, however, were the results very encouraging. The petroleum obtained in small quantities was of high-quality burning Oil. A company, the New Zealand Oilfields, Ltd., recently formed in London, with a capital of £200,000 (in 2s shares) propose to test immediately, by drilling, the extensive areas in this locality, over which they have secured rights to peroleum. Until the prospecting operations now being carried out in these widely separated districts arc completed it is quite premature to express an opinion as to the value of the properties as oil producers." . ,