Operations

Seeking Oil

Extent of Papua Operations

From Our Own Correspondent

Cairns, Jan. 3.

MR. ELLIS TURNER, an employee of Australian Petroleum Company, is back on the mainland after 16 months’ duty in Papua, and he reports that geological indications are being intensively explored and considerable sums of money are being spent in the effort to tap oil deposits.

“The recent announcement that oil had been found in Papua was false,” said Mr. Turner, “but the APC is boring hope fully into the crust of promising Papuan areas in an all-out bid for the liquid life giver, now so necessary to keep the wheels of the Australian industries turning at full capacity.”

Mr. Turner said that the search was proceeding along well-planned lines. At Kariava, 76 miles up the Vailala River, test bores have been drilled to a depth of 10,000 feet. Drilling operations are due soon to commence at Hohora and at Oroi (situated 60 miles west of Port Moresby, on the coast, six miles east of Yule Island).

The APC is an offshoot of the Anglo- Iranian Oil Company and it is controlled from Melbourne, with Englishmen as deputy general manager and field super intendent on the spot in Papua. There are Englishmen also among the drilling crew, but most of the 100 white men em ployed in the search are Australians, in cluding geologists.

In the tradition of the land the 800 natives on the payroll do the hard, physical labour, and the whites the skilled tasks and the work of supervision. Fourteen geologists main tain active geological and geophysical surveys over large tracts of country, and are at present testing out the possibilities of areas as far up as the Fly River.

Good Conditions For Men

“More men,” Mr. Turner added, “both white and black, were needed to push the quest ahead. Whites were well paid, but the inability of married men to bring their wives and families from the main land was a source of discontent. Efforts to provide the necessary accommodation for families were frustrated by material shortages.”

In other respects, APC was doing a good job, in providing for the physical welfare of its employees. It had installed its own refrigerators and fresh meat was avail able for the greater part of the month.

The company has 12 boats, and also operates a twin-engined plane. A com pany doctor gives free medical treatment and paludrine was issued, to be taken in twice-weekly doses as a guard against malaria. One houseboy was allotted to each single white man, two to married men. Single men were provided with everything except tobacco, beer and clothes, and recreational facilities were also provided.