Pacific Commerce and Produce

[?]ri Boom Is [?]er But [?]terest Continues

fhe Puri oil fever is now quite

t at least for the time

ng. But although the temper

re of investors has returned

normal, the shares of Oil

rch (which has one-tenth in

;st in Australasian Petroleum

Ltd.) have remained at the

d where the inrush of water

) Puri well left them in the

and week in November, 1958.

lIS indicates that investors still think that the chance of find ing oil in Papua is a good bet, ;pite of the fact that Puri No. 1 If has been shown to be an utter sr. i September, after the major :ners in APC had announced : they would withdraw, Oil rch shares were down as low as at the beginning of October r were 2/8 and a month later ■ 15/-, with one brief excursion, r Puri started to produce 1,300 •els a day, to 26/-. tien water as well as oil started ome out of Puri, and the boom over. By November 12, 1958, Oil *ch shares were back to 8/6 and b remained between that price 10/- ever since. l February, APC made the fol ng statement: lowing a meeting of shareholders’ sentatives and technical advisers held tly in London to discuss the forward ration programme, the directors of •alasian Petroleum Company Pty., and Island Exploration Company Ltd., announce that it is intended ncentrate the immediate effort in the ity of Puri and neighbouring geo il structures with a view to clarify is early as possible the prospects of lercial oil in this general area, j programme Includes, firstly, the ng of two deviated holes in Puri L to test the formation from which is recently produced, at some distance illy from the original hole; secondly, riling of the Bwata structure situated iles north-west of Puri; and thirdly, rilling of a Puri No. 2, provided that nee becoming available in the mean warrants a second hole, lultaneously with the drilling pro me, geological and geophysical sur will be undertaken, having the Live of elucidating structural con is in the general Puri area. ;tart has already been made on this amme. At Puri No. 1 the casing been milled out between 6,141 feet 1,171 feet but some delay in commenc he first deviated hole has been ex

perienced because of difficulty in starting it in the required direction. Measures are in hand to overcome these difficulties and footage progress is shortly expected.

Helicopter access to the Bwata drilling site has been gained and a survey of the location is in progress.

Arrangements have been made for a geological team and a contract seismic party to commence work early May in the general Puri-Kereru Bwata area.

It was announced about the same time that the company planned to spend £3,000,000 over the next 16 months in Papua (it has already spent £28,000,000 in oil search in the Territory), so Papua can depend on its oil-company income for at least that far ahead.

No Details

The company has not, however, announced yet how Oil Search in vestors are to be given a chance of a bigger participation in the search, and its ultimate rewards, if any.

It will be remembered that at the time Puri made the headlines in November, Oil Search, the Aus tralian company that has only a tenth interest in APC, was in course of forming another company to carry on after the big partners, Standard-Vacuum and British Petroleum pulled out.

The prospectuses had been printed and were on the point of being distributed, when Puri started to produce oil and the big partners de cided to remain in the game in Papua. Nothing further was then done about the new company by Oil Search, although it was stated that the big partners would try to arrange that Australian investors — presumably through Oil Search — would have bigger opportunities. It was never stated how this was to be done, and so far as we know, noth ing has come of it.

Since the Puri boom burst there have been the usual assertions that the oil is there alright, but that overseas vested-interests prevent it being brought in commercially.

There is no lack of oil in the world at present, and such things have been known before, but the discovery of oil in Papua is too strategically important to Australia to entertain doubts of this sort.

Puri benefited not only Oil Search shareholders, of course.

Papuan Apinaipi, which has an ad joining permit area to APC, haa their shares jump from about 1/11 in early October to 4/11 a month later. They have remained around 4/6 to 4/9 ever since. .

APC reported, March 10 that » devia tion from the original hole at Pun has been effected at 6,090 feet and a new hole has been drilled to 6.383 feet, filing is proceeding in the desired direction Site preparation at Bwata. 15 miles to the north-west of Puri has been commenced.^

Rubberiands Ltd.

Report Difficult Year

Directors at the annual general meeting of Rubberiands, Ltd., in Port Moresby on March 31, will recommend a final dividend of 3% per cent., making the total for the year 10 per cent.

Net profit for the year ending December 31. 1958, was £8,210 after provision for amortisation of plantation property (£2,287), depreciation (£2,338), and directors’ fees (£1,300).

The directors will report that the com pany had a difficult year in 1958. especi ally the final six months, owing to fall in the price of rubber, higher production costs and a drought. (The average price realised from sales of rubber for the year under review were 28.18 d per lb, or 3.61 d less then in the previous year).

The accounts as at December 31 indi cate a company very conservatively managed. It is noted that most of the “current” assets are shown as “rubber on hand and in transit” (£7.108) and an unexplained item of “Prepayments”, at £3,107.

With normal weather in 1959. the com pany will likely do better in the current year; since the close of their books at the end of 1958, Singapore rubber prices have shown an increase.

Lae Brewery Wants to

Extend its Activities

Guinea Brewery, Ltd., of Lae. New Guinea, has appointed a sales manager, Mr. Des West, formerly of Hastings Deer ing, Ltd., of Port Moresby.

This is the first step the company has taken to extend the brewery’s activities outside the Morobe district. Up to date the men who built the brewery, installed the machinery and brewed the beer— Messrs. R. Meier and J. R. Nydam—have also been their own sales staff.

More Whales For

Norfolk Is. & Byron Bay

The Norfolk Island and Byron Bay Whaling Company has had its whale quota increased for the 1959 season. They will be able to take 30 more whales in Byron Bay and 30 more at Norfolk bringing the quota up to 150 at each locality. This, and the better prospects for whale oil, should help the company substantially. The company did not pay a dividend last year in order not to impair liquidity, although a small profit was made.

Sandy Creek Output Percentage

Improves

Sandy Creek Gold Sluicing, Limited, re covered 106 ounces of gold from 2,825 cubic yards of material treated during February. This compared more favourably with the recovery of 118 ounces 10 dwt of gold recovered from 6,600 cubic yards of material treated during January.

Carpenter Holdings Profits

Are Maintained

The interim dividend, declared in March, of W. R. Carpenter Holdings, Ltd., remained unchanged from last year’s final rate of 5% per cent.

It was reported that activities of asso ciated and subsidiary companies have re mained satisfactory and that adequate profits will be available to maintain usual rate of dividend.

BGD Has Extraordinary

General Meeting

An extraordinary general meeting of Bulolo Gold Dredging, Ltd., shareholders was held in Vancouver on March 13 to insert a clause in the Articles of Asso ciation which will allow the directorate to appoint a Vancouver trust company as principal transfer agent and registrar for BGD shares.

The company’s head office in Vancouver has hitherto acted as its own transfer agent: the new move is expected to effect certain economies.

There will be no change in Australia.

The Sydney office of the company will still act as transfer agent in respect of shares listed on the Sydney Register, and will pay dividends as usual. All other dividends in future will be paid by the Vancouver trust company’s cheque.

Enterprises' Goldmining

Progress

The mine manager of Enterprise New Guinea Gold and Petroleum Development reports having treated 132 tons for 65 oz retorted gold; 13 Vz oz have been recovered from alluvial workings making a total of 78V2 oz of gold for February.

The sub-level has been driven 50 feet in ore 18 inches wide and good values are indicated. Values in the alluvial workings are also showing improvement.

West Crosscut from No. 1 level extended to 32 feet and should cut the parallel lode in another 30 feet.

New Guinea Goldfields Production

Overall production of New Guinea Gold fields. Ltd., was maintained through the short month of February, with 978 fine oz gold (from 3,416 tons of ore treated) from Golden Ridges mill, and 1,606 oz of silver.

Golden Ridges alluvials produced 54 oz gold bullion; Koranga alluvials (no clean up in January) 370 oz gold bullion; and tributes, 75 oz bullion.

Timber production was 180,256 su. ft.