Search For Oil In Papua

The Muddling of the Federal Government

Part 11.

\ NUMBER of expeditions, hacked by powerful companies and subsidised liberally by British Governments, are now seeking an oilfield in Papua■ — and, probably, will succeed. This article, the second of a series written by a resident of Papua, tells the story of the discovery of petroleum in the Territory, and of the subsequent attempts at development.

THE partners got to work promptly, secured Powers of Attorney from their friends, and proceeded to peg out as many claims as they could in what seemed to them the most likely spots.

But they no longer had the field to themselves. A few individual specula tors, with little or no knowledge of the district or of the locality of the indica tions pegged out claims haphazard with out much reference to geography or to one another. But their operations were

orderly and sane in comparison with the delegates of the British New Guinea Company, which sent out men well equipped with stores and means of trans port, but very much more at home be hind a store-counter or an office-desk tnan in the barbaric surroundings of the Papuan jungle.

These men went to work fiercely, their only method to drive as many pegs as possible. They seemed to have no idea even of the working of a compass. Their imaginary lines crossed one another and those of other prospectors.

In one instance, they drove no fewer than five datum pegs within a circle of a hundred yards radius, and registered claims to two and a half square miles of land on an area of rather less than one square mile! If, in their rather frigh tened rush through the scrub, they hap pened to see a peg that had been driven by another man, they promptly pulled it up and substituted one of their own. The result, when plotted out on a map of the district, was a complicated network of intersecting lines and superimposed rectangles that covered, several times over, most of the land to about twelve miles from the coast, but that never departed more than half a mile from the bank of the river.

Exactly what method a harassed War den could have adopted to solve such a puzzle it would be hard to say. Fortun ately for him, unfortunately for Port Moresby solicitors who might have scored heavily over the litigation of rival claims, the matter was never put to the test.

This rather fevered activity was at its height when Mr. J. E. Came, a well known New South Wales geologist, ar rived on the Vailala River for a preli minary investigation of the field. His investigations did not go very far, for he was merely putting in time owing to a delay in the arrangements for his in spection of the coal deposits reported on the Purari River by Messrs. Little and Mackay in 1909. But he saw the indica tions first discovered, and he saw the oil seeping slowly from the sandstone 20 miles up the river; and, although the question as to volume of supply remained unsolved, he went away fully convinced as to the occurrence of petroleum. r T T HE partners had pegged out claims to include the actual occurrence of oil; and, with a few Powers of Attorney in hand, they tried to discover, in more remote parts of the jungle, a series of signs as good as those up the river.

It was on one such expedition that Thomas collapsed with a sudden attack of blackwater fever. His condition was serious from the first onset of the dreaded disease, and the conditions at the rough camp, many miles from the nearest settlement, and among very pri

mitlve natives, were as adverse as they could well be.’

To add to the difficulties of the position rain fell heavily and incessantly.

The whole of the countryside was flooded knee-deep and the tracks were invisible; and the local natives, scared by the illness of a white man for which they imagined, illogically, that they might be held responsible, retired to remote huts and shelters in the depths of the bush.

But, somehow, he was carried out. The same fear that drove the bush people to hiding inspired the indentured labour-

ers, so that they worked obediently, if sullenly. A stretcher was rigged, with an inadequate awning to protect the sick man from the pitiless rain; and he was borne stumblingly, clumsily,, jerkily, through the yielding mud and halfsubmerged forest to the river bank, and thence by canoe for 10 miles to the coast, and another 10 miles along the beach to the nearest mission station.

Being blessed with a strong constitution and a healthy body, he survived the agonising ordeal, and after a few days of crisis began to recover slowly.

Lett returned to his prospecting; but he was not allowed to carry it on un disturbed. Jealousy raised its ugly head and spat venom at him and his absent partner. Counter-claims to the discovery were made by men who had never been in the bush until the report of oil roused cupidity to smother their fear of it. Pro tests were lodged against the claims that the partners had pegged, and against the Powers of Attorney that they held; and commercial oppression was openly threatened by a local company that had failed to gain control of their interests.

Thomas returned to the plantation, weak and emaciated, but alive; and at the first opportunity the two men left by steamer for Port Moresby and went on to Thursday Island, where they might use the cable in an attempt to negotiate their rights.

Papuan Government geologist, Evan R. Stanley, began an exhaustive examination of the oil-bearing country, and extended it to cover a great deal of territory where no indications had yet been seen. J. E. Came resumed his investigations after a disappointing and arduous trip to the Purari coal-beds. He confirmed Stanley’s observations, and left for an extensive examination of the Borneo and Java oilfields, to compare the conditions there with what he had seen in Papua.

The investigations of Lett and Thomas resulted in the disclosure of two more sets of oil indications: one near the little village of Aro-Aro, where Thomas had gone down with blackwater fever, and the other at the base of the le hills, about 15 miles east of the Vailala River; while the series that contained the actual flow of oil had been extended some miles across the river to the east.

The discoveries having been made in spite of their opposition, the natives of the district began to come forward with Information as to further “shows;’’ and by the end of June, 1912, surface indica tions had been seen over an area of more than 500 square miles.

By that time the partners had done all that they could do, and nothing remained but to await the result of their negotia

tions. They had an agreement with the British New Guinea Development Co. to hand over to the company four of their claims in return for a cash payment of £lO,OOO as soon as their applications were granted. But the granting of applica tions was held up pending the passing of legislation to deal with oil lands; and such legislation must be preluded by more detailed instructions from the Com monwealth as to the form of control that would be acceptable.

They began to devote some attention to their young plantation, which had been almost entirely neglected since the first discovery, nearly a year earlier.

Weeds had grown up in the interval; a lush tangled growth that is inevitable on rich soil in a wet, tropical climate.

Most of the young nuts that had been planted were strangled by the twining vines, or their tender roots smothered by the encroachment of lalang grass. Fallen timber had been left to lie too long, and was past hope of burning by a running fire, so that hundreds of tons of half rotten debris would have to be stacked and burned at the cost of almost infinite labour; and seed nuts, laid out in orderly rows in the nursery beds, had grown leggy and weak, and practically useless for planting. Thomas was incapable of further hard physical work; and his part ner was debilitated by almost continuous attacks of malaria and by the long-drawn physical strain.

TN mid-July, 1912, a bag of mail was * brought to them by a native constable from Kerema. Among the letters was one from the Warden of the Division.

It stated in cold official language that the policy of the Commonwealth Govern ment had been changed. The Common wealth itself would develop the field. No leases would be granted. The question of a reward to the discoverers would be further considered when the value of the field became known.

There were also letters from financiers in Sydney and Melbourne, making cauti ously tentative offers; and three from representatives of big and firmly estab lished companies in England and Amer ica, hinting at the staggering sums that they were prepared to pay in exchange for the supposed rights of the discover ers.

At that point, the partners fade out of the story. Thomas went down with a second attack of blackwater in October, 1912, and had to leave the country; and he died from a third attack that devel oped in Sydney in April of the following year. His partner survived to pay off gradually the accumulated load of debt that the partnership had incurred; and he is still waiting, after 24 years, for his share of the promised reward!

TN 1912 the competition between the •*“ world’s great oil companies for new sources of supply was very keen; and the news of the discovery of a possible new field in Papua aroused lively interest.

Two courses were open to the Com monwealth Government. They might either develop the field themselves, a course that implied very heavy expen diture and the use of hired experts who might be influenced by alien interests;

or they might permit the work to be done by established companies, keeping in their own hands full control of the oil produced, and imposing any condi t.ons that might seem necessary for the safeguarding of their interest and the guarantee of adequate productive work.

Of these two courses, after mature consideration, they chose the first. But it would appear that in so doing they had no very full idea of the enormous cost involved, or of the many difficulties that must stand in their way.

The British New Guinea Development Company, on making application for prospecting areas in Papua, did not wait for the granting of their applications, but took immediate steps to start work.

Through their London office, they en gaged the services of F. C. Grebin, M.I.M.E. (Freiburg) ; and when the de cision of the Commonwealth Government not to grant leases was made public, he was already on his way out to Papua with A. Voinitz, an Austrian, as his assistant, and with a small boring plant capable of putting down test bores to a depth of about 700 feet.

Grebin arrived in Melbourne en route to Papua; and the Commonwealth Gov ernment, to avoid inflicting hardship on the company that had engaged him, took over his services in spite of the fact that they had themselves engaged a man and placed an order for a larger plant. Grebin reached the Vailala River on October 20, 1912, and immediately set about making a preliminary survey of the surrounding country. Satisfied as to the prospects, he ascended the river and landed at a spot opposite the oil seepage on December 4.

THERE was a good deal of preliminary work to be done. Land had to be cleared, houses built, machinery and stores landed, and a derrick rigged, be fore actual boring could begin; but he started boring on Jan. 18, 1913, and on May 8 he struck a small flow of oil in black sand and shale at a depth of 228 feet.

Not satisfied with this, he continued bor ing until, when a depth of 242 feet had been reached, in oil-bearing sandstone, on May 19, a big tree fell on his derrick, completely wrecking it and forcing him to abandon the bore.

A new derrick had to be constructed of timber, and this delayed the work until June 16, when a second bore was started on the same anticline and within about 100 yards of the first bore.

By the end of June, 1913, he was down to 133 feet in the second bore, and had begun the construction of reservoirs be tween the steep ridges, intended to con tain the oil that he confidently expected to strike at a shallow depth.

On January 10, 1913, J. H. Locke, an Australian driller of considerable experi ence, arrived on the field. The known oil-bearing country had then been divided into two sections, separated by the Vai lala River; and the policy was to con duct the search on the two areas simul taneously.

Locke landed his heavy plant on the east bank of the river, opposite Grebin, got through his preliminary work, and •tarted boring on April 15. He, like

Grebin, found the strata very favourable, consisting of sandstone, shale, and sand, alternating with narrow bands of grey limestone; but early in June he was troubled by mud-pressure at a depth of 262 feet, and found a great deal of diffi culty in keeping his hole vertical under the strong lateral pressure of it.

Already, there was a good deal of trouble with the machinery supplied.

Grebin’s plant was intended only for com paratively shallow boring, and neither it nor the much heavier plant that Locke was using was equipped to deal with the many difficulties that present themselves in drilling for oil in this district.

A sample of oil from Grebin’s first bore was sent to Melbourne, where it was dealt with by Mr. W. P. Wilkinson, the Federal analyst, who divided the sample into two parts. The first of these he subjected to analysis, and after separa

tion and filtering, the following charac teristics were noted:- Odour,—Of crude petroleum.

Colour.—Pale (cinnamon) brown.

Fluorescence.—Bluish green.

Specific Gravity at 60 deg. F.—0.8082.

Flash Point.—At air temperature, 51.8 deg. F.

Refractive Index at 20 deg. C.—1.4485.

Sulphur Compounds.—Almost completely absent Polarization.—Practically nil.

The crude filtered oil was allowed to stand for a few hours, and deposited 3.4 per cent of crystalline waxy matter simi lar to paraffin.

The second portion of the sample was distilled in the standard Engler appara tus, giving the following data:

Mr. Wilkinson mentioned in his report that the data obtained from distillation showed the oil to contain relatively large quantities of spirit and burning oils, with smaller proportions of lubricating oils; and remarked that the sample was closely similar to the oil obtained in Borneo, Sumatra, and the adjacent is lands. At the same time, he pointed out that the crude oil obtained during the

first flow in boring operations is not always a guide to the character of what will come later as the flow continues.

THE Commonwealth Government, in

* the meantime, had been looking for an expert in oil-geology who might make a complete survey of the field, which Stanley’s efforts had now extended from the Kikori River to Kerema and for 40 miles inland—an area of not less than 2000 square miles. They found whom they wanted in the person of Dr. Arthur Wade, who had enjoyed a good deal of experience in Egypt, both in the matter of geological survey and also in the practical working of petroleum fields.

Dr. Wade arrived on the Vailala River on October 15, 1913, to make a survey and to select sites for boring, taking over from Grebin, whose agreement had ex pired. In the bores that Grebin had put down the signs continued favourable; and his results so impressed Dr. Wade that, after making a survey of the coas tal belt from the Kikori to Yule Island, he still considered that the area chosen on the Vailala River was the most promi s ng of all that he had seen.

Locke continued to experience difficul ties with lateral mud pressure, and had to abandon his first bore without increas ing its depth. He started a second bore within 100 yards of the first, but met with the same trouble again and, under Wade’s instructions moved his heavy plant across the river to a new site near Grebin’s bores. Thus the idea of pros pecting two areas simultaneously was abandoned, and for the next few years the efforts of Dr. Wade and his staff were confined to the small area on the right bank of the river that had been cleared by Grebin.

A CANADIAN driller, named Moure, arrived on the river on June 18, 1913, and left again on the 30th with a load of malarial germs that would last him for many years. Another Canadian, Cypher by name, took his place a few months later, bringing with him a more power ful plant than Grebin had been using; and he drilled to a depth of 390 feet, bottoming in mudstone and blaclt sand, before his agreement also expired, and he left the field on November 18, 1914.

Water collected in the abandoned bore; and it was not until the arrival of an other driller in May, 1915, that the accu mulated water was shut off and oil began to flow. Cypher had struck this small flow oi oil at 250 feet; but, expecting* a better flow at depth, had drilled past it; and from the greater depth water percolated in considerable volume. When once this was shut off, oil began to flow slowly but steadily. A hundred gallons seeped to the bore-head during the first week; then the intrusion of mud checked the flow, and in the second week the amount of escaping oil was reduced to 50 gal lons.

THE results achieved so promptly had their effect on the Commonwealth .

Government, and Lieut. Jones was sent, in charge of H.M.A.S. Stuart, to make a marine survey of the coast with a view to finding harbourage for ships that

Temp. Vol. of Sp. G. Flash Refrac.

C. distillate at 60 F. point Index 20C. 108 to 130 10 p.c. 0.749 under 60 F 1 417 130 to 150 15 p.c. 0.757 ,, 60 F. 1*423 150 to 200 24 p.c. 0.775 ,, 63 F. 1.4335 200 to 250 17 p.c. 0.807 122 F. 1.4505 250 to 300 16 p.c. 0.839 196 F. 1.4655

might carry to Australian refineries the oil that they hoped would soon flow copiously. Dr. Wade, too, apparently had high hopes; for he compiled, during the first year of his engagement, a careful report of the various possible methods of transporting oil from the bore-head to the seaboard.

“The oil has the characteristics of the shallow oils obtained in the Dutch Indies,” he reported in 1915. “At depth, we expect heavier oils in greater quan tity, and the above (i.e. the oil from Cypher’s bore) has strengthened confi dence.”

Dr. Wade, after completing his year’s engagement, returned under a new agree ment to take complete charge of the operations.

Prospects at the end of 1915 were as good as they could well be. In each of the bores that had been started the ex pectations of the geologists had been ful filled. In each of them the drill passed through strata of sandstone, mudstone, shale, and sand; and in each the pre sence of gas and the smell of petroleum, if not the actual oil itself, kept hope high and confidence growing.

Stanley, the indefatigable geologist to the Papuan Government, carried his sur vey further afield, and investigated the Cape Vogel peninsula, on the east coast of the island, where he was able to re port in 1916 that a tertiary series of mudstones, sandstones and limestones prevailed identical in age with the Vai lala petroleum series. He also found gas and brine springs, and occurrences of brown coal and lignite, and confidently recommended the district for further investigation.

But, although prespects became ever more encouraging, progress was woefully slow. To the difficulties inseparable from work in a primitive country were added every obstacle that a malignant fate could devise.

Dr. Wade experienced to the full the difficulty that has faced every man and every company that has attempted con structive work in Papua; the irritating difficulty, that is, of making accurate estimates of costs and forecasts of pro gress. Health played a very important part in the programme of obstacles; de lays in transport; time''wasted in replac ing men who became incapacitated by malaria or by the more dreaded black water fever; the rawness of native lab our, and the impossibility of watching their every movement.

The distance from the telegraph, and the apparent lack of experienced men in Australia to check the material for warded to Papua, resulted in calamitous short-shipping and other expensive mis takes. There were delays in manufacture and delays in forwarding; machinery was sent to Papua with essential parts missing; and when, often after months of delay, the shortage was eventually made good, the new parts did not fit, and more time was wasted in repairing the mistakes.

On several occasions, work on the field was held up for many weeks together, and experienced drillers, drawing salar

ies of £lOO per month, had no better occupation for their time than the super intendence of gangs of native labourers who were engaged in planting sweet potatoes.

Bore after bore was started, carried to a depth of a few hundred feet, and aban doned either because the pipe-line had been choked by some tool inadvertently dropped down it, or by the lateral pres sure of mud between steeply inclined strata, an affliction that the machinery supplied was not capable of dealing with.

In all, 12 bores were started on the Vailala, and the greatest depth reached by any of them hardly exceeded 400 feet.

In every one of them, the indications of oil were good, and small quantities of oil were actually obtained from most of them.

But, in every one, drilling had to be discontinued owing to some difficulty that might have been overcome by adequate finance or by the complete and far reaching organisation that is the chief strength of the world’s great oil com panies. (To be continued)

Mr. Henry Maurice Scott, only son of Sir Henry and Lady Scott, of Suva, and who recently returned to Fiji from Eng land, has been admitted to practice as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Fiji by His Honour the Chief Justice, Mr. O. C. K. Corrie. He is the third generation to be called to the bar in Fiji, his grandfather, the late Mr. W. Scott, having also been admitted.