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Show Oil and Gas Drilling Down In U. S., P-I Reports DENVER Drilling fur oil mid ;;as in the United ,S:.atcs di-eruasid 3.5 per P-tH in according to J'etroli.'um Information Corporation, Cor-poration, Denver, a subsidiary subsid-iary of A. C. Nielsen Company. Com-pany. Exploratory drilling increased. ; Preliminary figures compiled com-piled by PI, national pctro-li pctro-li um industry service organization, or-ganization, indicated 33,435 jivells wore drilled for oil and gas in the U. S. in thi! last year, compared to 34, 694 drilled in 19G8. Thirty five of the 50 states sta-tes had oil and gas drilling drill-ing activity. The? oil and gas industry was 57.4 per cent successful success-ful in total drilling last year, completing 19,208 new frodiuccrsi, 14,716 oil wells and 4,492 gas wells. Exploratory drilling increased in-creased 4.9 per cent over 19G3. It represented 27.2 per cent of total drilling. Exploration was 20.9 per cent successful. The 9,121 wildcat wells resulted in 1, !L5 discoveries, 1,054 oil and 851 gas. These totals include ,new field discoveries and new pay discoveries within existing fields. Drilling in the Rocky Mountains, Mid - Continent, tiie Easit Texas-North Louisiana Louis-iana - Arkansas area and in southeastern U. S. increased. increas-ed. Drilling in Texas, South Louisiana, the midwest, the northeast and in California was down. Nearly all oil and gas areas of the country registered increases in exploratory ex-ploratory drilling. The industry drilled 1,522 vjells off U.S. shores last year, off Louisiana, Texas California and Alaska. The Rocky Mountain Region Re-gion registered the strong- est drilling gain in 1969, up 16 per cent over the previous previ-ous year. Operators drilled 4443 wells in the 11-state area. They were 37.9 per ,cent successful, completing ,1,632 producers, Exploratory Explora-tory drilling, representing .46.5 per cent of the total, resulted re-sulted in 133 discoveries. The Mid - Continent - Hi-Plains Hi-Plains area, Okla., Kansas, Missouri, and the Texas Panhandle, showed a 2.6 per cent increase over the previous pre-vious year with 6,533 wells drilled. Fifty six per cent were successful. Exploratory Explora-tory drilling, 22. S per cent ;oF the total wells drilled, was 24.9 per cent successful with 359 discoveries. Texas drifting, 9,553 wells ,in 19G9, represented 28.5 per cent of total U. S. drilling. drill-ing. It was down 4.6 per cent from the previous year. Operators were 61.3 per cent successful in the state, completing 5,854 new (WeUia. Exploratory drilling, 3,241 wells, was 6.3 per cent above 1968 and resulted in 1,157 new discoveries. The South Texas - Texas iGulf Coast districts .' last year were 6.4 per cent below 1968 totals. Drilling in north and west central Texas decreased de-creased 5.1 per cent from the previous- year. In the Permian Basin, including West Texas and soutihieast iNew Mexico, drilling was off 4.6 per cent. East Texas-North Louisiana Louisia-na - Arkansas drilling was 'up 8.8 per cent last year with 2,122 wells drilled. Just over half were producers. South Louisiana drilling was off 8.7 per cent in 1969. Fifty, five per cent of the 2, 640 wells drilled were com-' com-' ipleted as oil -or gas pro- jducers. The southeastern 'states, Mississippi, Alabama 'Georgia and Florida, counted count-ed 782 wells -in 1969, a 1.7 per cent increase over the . previous year. This drill-tag drill-tag was 29.7 per cent successful. suc-cessful. Over half the drill-. drill-. 'ing was exploratory. . J The Midwest and Northeast North-east areas of the U.S., including in-cluding the Illinois, .Appalachian .Appala-chian and Michigan Basins, 'were off 8.6 per cent in total to-tal drilling last year with 6J580 wells drilled. Operators Opera-tors were 66.3 per cent successful. suc-cessful. . Exploratory drill- tag, representing 14.4 per cent of the total, was off 15.4 per cent from the pre- , vious year. California figures, compiled com-piled by Munger . Oil Information Infor-mation Service, Inc., Los 'Angeles, . indicated 2,040 Vwlls were drilled in the istate in 1969, below the (1969 total. Drilling was 80.1 . per cent successful. Ex-jploratory Ex-jploratory drilling in California Calif-ornia was up two per cent last year, resulting in 31 discoveries. dis-coveries. In Alaska 97 wells were 'drilled last year, including '68 new producers. The total to-tal included 22 discovery wells. . ... |
