Deep Drilling For Oil

What Australasian Petroleum Co.

Has Done in Papua

From Our Own Correspondent

Pt. Moresby, March 21.

ANOTHER step forward in the search for oil in Papua was taken on March 8 when the Australasian Petroleum Co. commenced drilling operations in their first deep test well at Kariava, on the Vailala River.

This drilling follows large-scale ex ploratory work, which included a com prehensive aerial survey covering 28.000 sq. miles of territory and detailed geological and geophysical investigations.

An engineering task of vast proportions had to be undertaken when the site of the test well was chosen in May, 1940.

Heavy drilling equipment had to be trans ported from Pt. Moresby, necessitating the installation of special facilities at Pt. Moresby, and wharves, jetties, cranes, etc., at transhipment bases on the Vailala River.

From the final off-loading base, 75 miles from the river mouth, a road 3i miles through dense jungle country and over sharply dissected terrain had to be constructed. It took six months to build, at a cost of £12,000.

During the construction of the road, work went ahead on the erection of quar ters for the European and native staffs and numerous other buildings, such as hospitals, stores, workshops, etc. All this entailed many thousands of tons of materials which had to be carried up stream in vessels navigating the difficult waters of the Vailala’s upper reaches.

Search For Oil in New Caledonia A VISITOR from New Caledonia recently told the “PIM” that seven years ago he found a deposit of oil about five miles from Koumac, a small town at the northern end of the island.

He did not develop interest in his dis covery, however, when he found that, under French law. ownership of a newly discovered oilfield automatically passes to the State.

The presence of oil in New Caledonia is nothing new. As far back as 1905, traces of oil were found in various parts of the Colony, which is right on the oil belt, curving south-eastwards from the Dutch East Indies, through New Guinea and Papua, down to New Zealand.

Twenty years ago, a Queensland syndi cate spent between £20,000 and £30,000 in a fruitless effort to find payable oil in NC. Drilling operations were actually commenced near Noumea, and shortly afterwards a bore was put down near Koumac, where traces of oil had been found in a small stream.

Geologists from Europe and America have visited the Colony at intervals over the past quarter of a century, and the island has been thoroughly examined.

One expert, who carried out research in New Caledonia, said he did not think there was any possibility of obtaining large quantities of oil because, geologic ally speaking, the structure of the island was “too upset”.

Mrs. Brewster (formerly Miss Loudon, daughter of the well-known Papuan planter) is now living with her husband in Los Angeles. She reports that, in another apartment in the same building are Mr. and Mrs. Jack Ringers. Mrs.

Ringers, not long ago, was Miss Jean O’Dea, the pretty daughter of Mr. T.

O’Dea. Guinea Airways manager in Port Moresby.