Oil Drilling Revealed

By O’CALLAGHAN Jody

Historical footage has proven that drilling for oil was carried out in Manawatu as early as 1938.

Recently Hugh Green Energy director Ian Brown said there was no drilling in the region before the 1960s.

The company is in the process of an airborne oil and gas exploration in the Manawatu, Horowhenua and Wanganui region.

But the Manawatu Standard was able to confirm local farmers’ memories of drilling taking place at the start of World War II, after receiving word of an old 16mm film showing drilling at Mount Stewart.

Brian Waters, of Palmerston North, said the film taken by his grandfather in 1938, showed the drill in action alongside a farm in Mount Stewart.

The name Superior Oil Company splashed across a truck in the background proved the other suspicion that the company was American.

The film, which they still hold a VCR copy of, is now archived in the Alexander Turnbull Library.

A similar photograph at Te Manawa Museum also shows an oil rig at Mount Stewart in about 1940.

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(c) 2007 Evening Standard; Palmerston North, New Zealand. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.