BORING FOR OIL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 June 1938, Page 3

BORING FOR OIL

PETROLEUM COMPANY'S OPERATIONS

PLANT COMING FROM AMERICA

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, June 7.

About 1500 tons of plant and machinery to be used by the New Zealand Petroleum Company. Ltd., in its oilboring operations near Gisborne will arrive by the Mariposa from San Francisco on Friday and by the Trehata from New York on June 28, according to a statement made by Mr J. H. Lindon, Wellington, general manager for New Zealand of the Vacuum Oil Company Proprietary Ltd., one of the share-holding companies in the New Zealand Petroleum Company. Mr Lindon added that drilling would probably begin within about two months of the arrival of the equipment at the site of boring operations. 29 miles from Gisborne. In addition to four American oil experts who would arrive from Sydney by the Niagara next Monday, three other officers of the new company would arrive by the Mariposa, said Mr Lindon. These included Mr W. S. Simpson, accountant-manager, who had had considerable service with the Vacuum Oil Company in Mexico. The other two Messrs A. Weymouth and C. S. Thom, were both geologists with experience in Californian fields. In charge of the entire operations would be Mr Hobart la Mar, the leader of the party coming by the Niagara. The construction of the camp at Rere, near the site of the bore, and the building of an access road were now under way.

The equipment from America, including bore-casting, pumps, engines and piping, would be transferred to Gisborne, by coastal steamer, and the drilling plant would take about a month to six weeks to erect. Drilling would begin shortly afterward.