PETROLEUM

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 97, 14 October 1911, Page 5

PETROLEUM

SHE'LL COMPANY. MAY SPEND £1,000,000 IX NEW ZEALAND. By Telegrni)''—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. Mr. G. S. Engel, representing the Rhell Transport and Trading Company of New Zealand, the British rival of'the Standard Oil Trust for the oil supremacy of the world, is at present in Wellington in connection with the large interests held by his company in New Zealand oilfields. In an interview, Mr. Engel said his company was prepared to spend a large sum of money in developing New Zealand oilfields, providing the conditions were satisfactory. He mentioned an amount over a million sterling. The great difficulty his company had to face, however, was that the mining laws of New Zealand had reference to reef mining, and not to sinking for oil. If the (jovernme'nt thought the oil industry worth fostering, some alteration in the laws would be nccassary before companies would venture much capital in the business. Mr. Engel intends to approach the Government on the subject of increasing to 10,000 acres .the area that may be held. His company is interested in the Kotuku fields, which he proposes to visit, and has also large concessions in the North Island. They believed in the future of the oil industry in New Zealand, which, on the opening of the Panama Canal, would become of vast importance.