Taranaki Oil

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 159, 5 January 1914, Page 7

Taranaki Oil

EXPEKTFROM CA,'..FORY. A. SOURCES NOT TAPPED. "PLENTY OF AMERICAN HONEY.' An oil export with credential* at least us good as could In' obtained anywhere in the world is to report presently on itlie oil area in Taranaki. He is Mr.'T. L. Van Epps, now in Wellington, but' at home lie is held manager of the !). L. Petrie oil properties in California, properties which constitute the holding of the Pacific Petroleum Company, of which Mr Petrie is still, head. Mr* Van Epps has been brought up in the smell and spray of oil wells all his life, ami he is now say 40 years of age. He was born on the Pennsylvania Held, but 15 years ago lie moved over to the newer and now the bigger field near Los Angeles. The output of this new .Midway field last year was 100,000,000 barrels of'oil, which makes it the biggest field in the world. To this total the Pctrics' properties contributed at the rate of Sii.OOO barrels a month. From the Midway field the Standard Oil Company have' three pipe linos running 300 miles into Port Richmond, where the biggest refinery in the world is situated. These pipes will carrv 100,000 barrels of oil a day. There are also other pipe lines, and train loads of oil go out; day and night. "In spite of all this," said Mr Van Epps to a Dominion interviewer, "the producer is Inning a hard time trying to cope with the demand, and in California we are constantly drawing on storage. This shows, of comae, flic limitless demand for oil. Why. there is not a pound of coal burnt in Los Angeles. Our locomotives and all our industries use oil fuel; and in five, years we will have a, million people in Los Angeles without any doubt whatever. We have 15,000 more school children in Los Angeles than in San Francisco, and we have now the biggest city on the Pacific Coast." So much for what the development of oil has done for California. , TMK SOURCE NOT TOUCH FAX "Yes, T have heard aboul your oil deposits. I have been very much interested in them for the last two year?, and 1 have read everything I could find concerning them. I heard your country was a very fine country, all green, and our place is all yellow for ten months of the year; so T thought I might have a vacation here, when T was asked to report on this property m Taranaki. "From what T can learn about New Zealand oil, I am sure they have not the source of surmb- vet. They are only getting seepage. The big company in Taranaki have a production-of only 250 barrels a week. That cannot'como from any source of surmlv. '(here is no considerable volume of oil where such a small How comes from. In California we j often strike a small strata of oil givviug, say. 10 barrels a day 100 ft above the real oil pool. We pay no attention to these small streaks—we used to, but we do; not now—we continue right down , till we hit the main oil. Tlk-ii we start to produce. 1 think the oil industry in New Zealand has been held back by' the lack of experience of those in control, and until very recently by .lack of modern machinery. T believe they have ■ r tried tjo get some of our good men from America, hut there is no reason why they should come here; thev are getting good wages in our country, among our own people, and they do not come. T I could have gone to India several times, but I preferred to slay at home. And even the best of machinery is useless to I a company if it is nut directed by a man who knows. I think New Zealand will eventually become prominent in oil production, for I feel sure that sooner or later someone will find the main source, and get good producing wells. There should be pools of oil in all those parts where seepages occur. AMERICAN MONEY AVAILABLE. "If you can get your oil here in sufficient quantities it will be immensely valuable. Your oil is not a fuel oil. Everything in it can be refined, into petrol, !;croseno, engine oils, cylinder oils, and the heavier residue i s mostly paraffin wax. Our oil in America i". of asphaltum base, and there is a lot of residue, which is only useful for roadmaking. Our crude oil is worth only about 2s a barrel, and yours is worth about 12s. If we can find some aood oil up there, there will be plenty of American money to come over here to* develop the New.Zealand field. The ncople with whom Tam connected will put moneyover here if my report is favorable. NO INSUPERABLE DIFFICULTIES. "The only diffienl'ty'about boring is to' get down the depth necessary to tap the oil. _ 'Unfortunately this New Zealand field is very deep, between .".000 and 4000 feet, and up till just recently they have not been able to get down more 'than a very few bores to that depth. Tstill say they have missed the main body of the oil. It might be deeper, or it m'i'dil lie at. some little distance from the present bores.. The depth of the oil makes the proposition of working it more of a gamble, but there should be no difficulty at all about getting down to MOOR with the ri-.'ht machinery and the right methods, and the right men." Mr Van Epps insisted also that oil prospecting is a work that can only be done with any hope of success by the practical man. Tn America even geologists who had made a special study of oil right on the fields found themselves utterly at a lass when they attempted to locate oil. The area which Mr Van Epps jroes to inspect is of 17 square miles, and is held by the 'lnternational Petroleum and Minerals l>evelopm»itt Corporation, with headquarters in Chrislchurch. This, as be said, is an immense area for one proprietary, if the land should nrove i-i hear oil. The Midway field, in wlii/n there are 1000 producing wells, is ■>') miles lonir. and from one to five mil,. wide. Alter looking over Taranaki, Mr Van Epps thinks he may look as s-otw of the areas where oil' nianitestatioas occur on the 'Mast Coast.