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Show 07 and Gas Exploration Up 5 Percent in 1971 Ikuston, Tex. Exploration for oil and gas in the United States was up almost five percent in 1071 despite a 2.3 per cent decrease in total wells as compared to 1970. hecording to Petroleum reformation, re-formation, a subsidiary of A. C. Nielson Company. Last year's decline was not as severe as 1970 when a 1G per cent drop was experienced. experienc-ed. Both total drilling and exploration were up in Texas, .Louisania and the Southeastern Southeast-ern states, while the Mid-Continent, Mid-Continent, Midwest, North-,e?st North-,e?st and the Rockies saw declines. de-clines. Figures compiled ';y PI. .national petroleum industry .information service, indicates indicat-es 27.419 wells were drilled in the U. S. last year, as compared com-pared to 28.091 drilled in .1970. The 1971 total includes 1, , 091 stratigraphic tests or service ser-vice veils, and 26.328 wells that were drilled for oil and ,gas. The industry drilled for production in 34 of the 50 states, making more than 127 million feet of new hole. Operators were nearly 60 per cent successful, completing complet-ing 11,962 new oil wells and 3,809 new gas wells. Wildcats, 31 per cent of the pil and gas drilling in 1971, numbered 8.249. Of these wells, 679 discovered new producing fields and 1,283 opened new producing zones or extended production in existing ex-isting fields. Thus exploration in 1971 was 23.78 per cent successful, an improvement of 3.6 percentage per-centage points over 1970. Texas represented almose 30 per cent of total drilling in the U. S. last year with 8, 214 wells. That total is three per cent above the number drillen in -970. Texas operators opera-tors were 64 per cent successful suc-cessful in driling for oil and gas. More than 40.2 million leet of new hole was drilled in the state last year. Louisania drilling, 2,912 wells, was up four per cent from 1970. More than half, 1,-543 1,-543 wells, were successfuply completed. Drilling in Mississippi Mis-sissippi and the Southeastern states, Alabama, Florida and Georgia, was up 19 per cent over 1970. Operators drilled 645 wells in 1971 completing com-pleting 31 per cent, 242 wells, as producers. I Drilling in Arkansas was, up 15 per cent, with 360 wells in 1971. Fortyfive per cent of the total were completed as producers. The Mid - Continent - Hi-Plains Hi-Plains area, representing nearly 17 per cent of U. S. aelivily last year with 4,650 wells, was off 12 per cent from 1970. The Midwest and Northeastern North-eastern U. S. was down five per cent in total drilling v. iih 4,813 wells. Almost 67 per tent, or 3,136 of the 4,709 wells drilled for oil and g-is were successfully completed. The 11-state Rocky Mountain Moun-tain region was down eight per cent in 1971 with a total of 3,241 wells, including 3,160 drilled for oil and gas. More than half were exploratory wells. California figures, compiled compil-ed by Munger Oil Information Informa-tion Services (Ine, Los Ar-geles, Ar-geles, indieatc 2,188 well)-were well)-were drilled in the state in 1971 1 up two per cent from 1970. Almost three-fourths of' the tot-jl were completed a' producers. Alaska, according to Mun-ger, Mun-ger, was down 53 per cetn with 32 wells drilled in 1971. Only six wildcats were drilled drill-ed in Alaska last year, an 8 per cent drop from the previous pre-vious year. |
