THE OIL INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 182, 19 December 1912, Page 4

THE OIL INDUSTRY.

One cannot visit the scene of the oilboring operations at Moturoa at the present time without being impressed with the extensiveness mf the work being carried on or with the potentialities of the industry. The work has now entered on a fresh and important stage. The new company has lost no time in developing the field. Satisfied with the results of the prospecting work that has been carried on for years by local enterprise, the company, at the instance of its professional advisers, immediate!/ ordered an up-to-date and complete refinery plant and the latest boring plant. The greater portion of the former lias come to hand, and is now in process of erection, whilst yesterday a successful start was made with the running oj the new rotary boring plant. To those accustomed to the old and laborious form of boring, the work of the new plant yesterday was a revelation. Working as smoothly as possible, the plant bored no less than thirty feet in an hour. To appreciate what this means in the development of the industry one has to remember that the average rate per hour for the ordinary cable rig is only about a foot. Of course, the formation pierced yesterday was fairly easy, but harder and more difficult strata will possibly be met before the oil measures are tapped. Only then will it be possible to arrive at a judgment regarding the efficiency of the rotary machine so far as this locality is concerned. lii certain parts of the United States the system has been an unqualified success, and lias overcome every obstacle in the nature of hard formations, strong gas pressure and other disabilities. As oil-boring country goes, that at Moturoa does not offer serious difficulties to the rotary drill, and there is good reason to believe that the claims of the makers', and .the opinions of suck experts as Mr. J. 1). Henry, will be substantiated. -If they .are, it. will mean a gi;eat deal for New Plymouth and New Zealand as a whole. It has taken years to put down, by the old methods, most of the bores at Moturoa, and cost thousands of pounds. With the new system, all this will be changed, and wells two to three thousand feet deep will be drilled in a fcjv months—maybe, in only a few weeks, with ordinary luck. The cost should be much less, for time is money, and a much better job will be made of the boring, It is satisfactory to know that the flow from the three bores is being maintained. No. 2 has now been runiiing for three years —quite an unprecedented period for any oil well that is not pumped—whilst the flow fiom the others s perfectly satisfactory, although that from No. 5 could be increased by cleaning out the bore, a work that is to be carried out as soon as the new derrick, replacing the one that was destroyed by fire, is completed. Capital progress is being made with the erection of the refinery, which, it can now be seen, is going to be no small concern. At the present rate of progress, ;t is expected the works will be cod

pleted by April, when the refining of the oil will be commenced. What is ahead of the oil industry no one can say with any certainty; but there is every indication that we arc on the threshold of an era full of hope and pregnitnt with possibilities. Meantime, we would advise people to visit the neighborhood and see for themselves what is going on. To the majority the result will be as surprising as it will be satisfactory.