Intensified Oil Search In

Papua-Ng In 1949

mHE British Government, main share- X holder in the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, is keenly interested in the search for oil in New Guinea, said Dr. E. G. Raggart, Director of the Com monwealth Bureau of Mineral Resources, in Melbourne recently. Hundreds of thousands of pounds will be spent in Papua-New Guinea this year in an in tensified search for oil.

The search will involve the construction of many miles of road, erection of drills and provision for homes, electricity and other facilities for personnel.

The Australian Petroleum Company is responsible for the operations in the Territory, where at present 250 Europeans and almost 2,000 natives are employed.

A number of officials are on loan from the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, and from the Vacuum Oil Company. Ten trainees sent from Australia to Iran have now returned and are working in New Guinea and another 12 trainees recently went to the United States from Australia.

APC have a big job ahead of them, but equipment of all kinds is constantly arriving in Australia for transhipment to New Guinea. Two new drilling plants were expected to arrive from America in the early New Year.

One of the problems confronting the company in the field is that of keeping men happy in remote jungle outposts.

But the provision of good amenities goes some way towards solving it.