Papua

Oil Prospecting in Papua ARC Spends a Million Pounds to Put Down Deepest Test Well

SINCE Australasian Petroleum Company Pty. Ltd. was formed at the end of 1938 and began an intensive search for oil in Papua and New Guinea, £1,000,000 has been spent on the project.

The Co. recently increased its capital from £1,000,000 to £2,000,000.

When APC (as the concern in known in the Territories) took over the areas held under special permit by Oil Search Ltd., the first task was to make a com prehensive aerial survey, in 12 months photographing 28,000 sq. miles of territory mostly unmapped and largely unknown.

Armed with maps produced from these aerial photographs, geological and geo physical survey parties went into the jungle to examine, on the ground, the more likely looking features detected by aerial photography.

As a result, the site for the first deep test well was selected in March, 1940. at Kariava, 75 miles up the Vailala River from the coast of the Gulf of Papua.

A difficult engineering problem now had to be faced —transporting and erec ting heavy drilling equipment, purchased at a cost of £200,000. This outfit, capable of going down to a depth of 10,000 ft., comprised many heavy lifts of over five tons. To handle these, wharves, jetties and cranes were erected on the banks of the Vailala where previously was only primeval jungle.

While these handling facilities were being built, a road from the river base to the drilling site was constructed. Al though only 3J miles long, this road was a difficult, expensive undertaking, cutting entirely through dense jungle, over sharply dissected ground, and in an area of extremely heavy rainfall. But, by November, 1940, the road was through to the drilling location, and erection of the plant commenced.

In March this year, the installation of the drilling plant was sufficiently far advanced to allow operations to commence.

Throughout the period of drilling plant installation, work proceeded with the construction of living quarters for staff and labour, offices and laboratories, work shop and power station, water storage tanks and pipe lines.

Since the commencement of drilling, good progress has been maintained, and a depth exceeding 5,000 ft. has now been reached, which is far in excess of the depth reached by any previously drilled test well in Papua. Drilling started in a 23-inch hole and the first string of 18i-inch casing was cemented at 895 ft.

A second string of 151-inch casing was cemented at 2,327 ft., and it is intended to insert and cement the third string of Hi-inch casing at the present depth.

It is expected that the present well will be completed before the middle of 1942.

Geological field work is continuously be ing carried out in order to choose other promising drilling areas.

Shareholders in APC are Vacuum Oil Co. Pty. Ltd. (wholly-owned subsidiary of Standard-Vacuum, of New York), D’Arcy Exploration Co. Ltd. (wholly-owned sub sidiary of Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. Ltd., London) and Nominated Holdings Pty., Ltd. (wholly-owned subsidiary of Oil Search Ltd., Sydney).

Mr. A. J. Batchelor, of the New Guinea Mission in Papua, has been in Australia during the past two months on furlough, part of which has been spent delivering lectures about the Mission in Western Australia.