New Oil-Seeking Co.
pp. 37-38 · Read in the full issue
For Papua
WHEN Papua, for purposes of an oil search, was divided up between Papua Oil Development Ltd. (Shell), Islands Exploration Ltd. (Vacuum), and Oil Search Ltd. (formerly Oriomo), an area carrying marked petroliferous signs was reserved from the Oil Search Ltd. concession. It had been applied for, over 12 years ago. by a Mr. R. S. Haynes, and Mr. Haynes, assisted by Mr. Walter Marks, had kept the application alive ever since.
This area has been the subject of a “float” in Australia. The Papuan Aninaini Petroleum Co. Ltd. offered 400.000 57shares to the public and allotted an other 100,000 5/- shares, under certain restrictions, to Messrs. Marks and Haynes, and their associates- The obiect of the new Co. is to acnuire and'develop the area referred to —48,000 acres, near the coast of Papua, 86 miles north-west of Port Moresby and 45 miles south-west of Kerema.
It is an interesting speculation. Papua is on the “oil belt,” and there are signs of oil all over the Territory. Sooner or later, a well will be found. The chances, most definitely, are in favour of those concerns, which can undertake the search
with a large, expert staff and unlimited resources, and can simply carry on until oil is located. That is what is now, being done in Papua by the three major com panies. But it is all a matter of luck.
The big fellow, after years of drilling,
may miss, and the little fellow may suc ceed at once.
The Co.’s capital (£100,000) seems a small amount with which to undertake drilling in Papua, which the history of the past 25 years shows to be a horribly expensive process. Many hundreds of thousands of pounds have been lost there.
Against that, the new Co. has a small specially-selected area, which already has had a good deal of investigation, and it knows exactly what it is going to do.
The area was selected by Mr. Haynes, as the most promising of all, when Anglo- Pers’an abandoned operations about 1924- Mr. Haynes was a topographical surveyor on the Anglo-Persian geological staff. It looks a good gamble.
After consultation with the Common wealth Oil Advisory Committee, the dir ectors decided upon the purchase of a
drilling plant of the latest design. Mr.
R. S. Haynes (field manager) proceeded to Apinaipi. Papua, with his field staff at the end of August to carry out pre liminary work in preparation for the ar rival of the drilling plant from America.
Mr. R. B. Carpenter, a director of Messrs. W. R. Carpenter & Co. Ltd., returned to Sydney after a visit to Rabaul, New Guinea, by the Nellore on August 20.
Rev. Leslie Stibbard, of the Melanesian Mission, arrived in Australia by the Strathaird on August 19 from England, where he has been undergoing a course at St. Augustine’s Theological College, Canterbury. Mr. Stibbard departed from Sydney for Maravovo, British Solomon Islands, by the Malaita on August 21.