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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 182, 31 January 1912, Page 4

OIL BORING. The interview we had the other day with Mr. Weger, the American oil plant manufacturer, was read, as we had expected, with lively satisfaction by those interested in the' local petroleum industry. As was mentioned in the interview, Mr. Weger, on hearing in America about the oil prospects of this country, took the first • opportunitly of visiting New Zealand,and seeing things for himself. And so satisfied was he with what s he saw that he returned to California and arranged to establish a branch of his business and manufacture plant in Napier. He has already started operations, and goes the length of stating that within twelve months fifty, rigs, or well-boring outfits, will be wanted in this country. We only hope he is a true prophet. It cannot be said of him that he is afraid to back his belief in the prospects of the industry. The chief value of Mr. Weger's statements, however, lies in his references to the modern method of boring. The whole system, it appears, has of late years been completely revolutionised, and to a very large extent this state of things has been brought about by the firm with which Mr. Weger is associated. AH those who have followed at all closely the boring work at Moturoa and elsewhere in the neighborhood know how slow, laborious and difficult it has been. • It has taken years to bore the wells to their present depths, and at times the work lias been well-nigh heart-breaking. But-all this is ndw a thing of the past. The new method will accomplish practically in months what it has taken years up to now. The deepest and biggest well can be sunk inside of six months, and such difficulties as water encroachment, pumping, etc.;, will be overcome at once,, the work of boring plain sailing and the cost greatly reduced. Consider what this means to Taranaki. At Moturoa it has been demonstrated beyond any question of doubt that'oil exists in payable quantities. Indeed, Mr. Weger, who has visited every known oil-bearing country in the world, characterises the No. 2 well as "the wonder of the petroleum world," for the reason that no well exists or has existed that lias run for over two years of its own accord. And the well, according to such authorities as Mr. H. J. Brown and Mr. J. D. Henry, is only yielding a seventh of what it can be made to produce under improved methods. It has taken tens of thousands of pounds and years of time to arrive at our preseftt position. Under the new system half-a-dozen wells, •20in in diameter if need be, can be drilled within a few months, and all the oil-bearing measures sucaessfully tapped and not be affected, as has been the case in the past, by water, or the action of quicksands or "caving" territory. Take half-a-dozen wells yielding what the authorities state No. 2 can, under improved conditions, produce, and see what the output of tlie field would be—six ' times 100 barrels a day, 600 barrels, or 42,000 barrels a week! As a 100-barrel-a-day well is calculated to earn a clear profit of £35,000 a year, one gets an idea of the possibilities of the industry under the new conditions of boring. Considering the obsolete plants that have been used, it is remarkable that so much has been accomplished in the past. It is, we understand, the intention of the British company to introduce the new "rotary" method of boring at Moturoa. We only hope its introduction will bring about the same change locally as it did in the California!! fields referred to by Mr. Weger. who mentioned that in the old days it used to take two to three years to sink a. well any distance there; now they are drilled in sixty or seventy days. Then the wells were few and far between; now the fields resemble forests. We trust that Taranaki will soon present a similar spectaela.