Oil exploration records and rock samples discovered gathering dust in a San Ġwann garage have prompted an investigation by the Infrastructure Ministry.

Infrastructure Minister Joe Mizzi said yesterday he was “shocked” to have been told of the abandoned records, which, he said, had cost millions of euros to compile.

Ministry officials would now be combing through the records to see what they contained, a spokeswoman said. They would also be seeking to understand why the records fell into such a state of disarray in the first place.

Nationalist MP George Pullicino was responsible for oil exploration during his time as Resources Minister. He said yesterday he had no knowledge of the garage in question or its contents.

“I never entered into the details of what was stored where,” he said. “That’s a question for the technical experts to answer.”

The Times was given permission to visit the garage in question and see the dusty documents first-hand, although leafing through them was strictly prohibited. The garage is rented by the Government and used as a document archiving facility, although it had clearly not been put to any significant use for quite some time, given the copious amounts of dust, whiff of humidity and no functioning electricity.

Haphazardly-stacked cardboard boxes contained paperwork and files. Among the documents visible was a 1990 report on Maltese oil exploration by the Japan National Oil Company, what appeared to be a map of Tunisia’s continental shelf and several box files marked “drilling data”.

Elongated wooden crates – presumably core samples given the “core” label each carried - were shelved in a more orderly manner. The same couldn’t be said for what appeared to be smaller rock and gravel samples, with boxes full of sampling tubes strewn across the floor. Once officials have finished assessing the records and the drilling samples, the necessary steps would be taken to find appropriate storage premises, the ministry spokeswoman said.

Stored cores and cuttings from previous drillings would be stored in a location “where oil companies can have easy access while evaluating the acreage,” she added.

Mr Mizzi, who announced the archival discovery during an appearance on One TV, said that the oil exploration division was in a “state of disaster”. He spoke optimistically about the chances of striking oil, saying several exploration companies had shown a strong interest in drilling locally.

Mr Pullicino felt the Government was over-egging it with its oil-related declarations.

“Having companies express interest is one thing. Performing due diligence on them and having them actually drill is another,” he said