Former public accountant and National party MP…

Former public accountant and National party MP Robert Muldoon becomes New Zealand’s finance minister in 1967.

He commits New Zealand troops to the Vietnam War.

In May, 1967, Texas oil billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt allegedly uses a sophisticated satellite technique to discover a huge oil source south of New Zealand in the Great South Basin, an area of mainly sea to the south of the South Island of New Zealand.

Starting in the 1960s, the area is explored and drilled for oil deposits by various, mostly international minerals companies — including Hunt Oil.

An unconfirmed rumor has Hunt and Muldoon allegedly concluding a June agreement that awards Hunt sole drilling rights in exchange for a US$100,000 non-repayable loan to Muldoon from Hunt’s Placid Oil Company.

On September 8, 1967, the New Zealand government grants Placid Oil drilling rights to the Great South Basin.