SEARCH FOR OIL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 November 1938, Page 6

SEARCH FOR OIL

MINISTER TO VISIT GISBORNE AREA BORE DOWN MORE THAN 500 FEET FULL TEST INTENDED (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Immediately on his return to Wellington after his present visit to Christehu/ch, the Minister of Mines (the Hon P. C. Webb) will travel to Gfeborhe to visit the area where prospectors are drilling for oil. The visit is being made at the invitation of the companies conducting the operations. Mr Webb said today that the first hole was now down more than 500 feet. Good progress was being made and with reasonable luck the drill should be down to the full depth of 8000 feet well before Christmas. The minister added that he was not in a position to say much about possibilities until he had paid a visit to Gisborne. “In a previous statement it was made to appear that the drilling of one hole would determine whether or not we had oil in payable quantities,” said Mr Webb. “While the importance of the first hole cannot be overlooked, hundreds of holes are sometimes drilled without a trace of oil before a supply is tapped. Some of the best oil fields in the world have been discovered after hundreds of holes had been drilled in different localities.

The Minister said that still further oil companies were becoming interested in the search for oil in New Zealand. Two eminint geophysicists and geologists had recently arrived in the Dominion with the hope of locating for prospecting new country not already held by companies.