The preparation for wildcatting in the U.S.S.R. during 1934 and 1935, which was if anything, entirely too thorough in its minute details, resulted in several major discoveries during 1936. At the same time it is believed that the industry has progressed sufficiently to adopt American methods of wildcatting with steam and Diesel power involving a minimum of capital investment in permanent installations like power lines machine shops, living quarters, et cetera, thus promising accelerated exploration during the coming years.

The Caucasus supplied all of the major discoveries during 1936. This was due to the clearer understanding of stratigraphy and structural conditions of the areas, to the accessibility of the region to the available facilities of the oil industry, and to the forced exploration of individual major structural features by as many as ten to fifteen tests. The outstanding discoveries of the year were made on the shores of the Caspian Sea in Dagestan Province near Makhach-Kala, about half-way between Grozny and Baku. Izberbash proved to be the most important new field, with initial production ranging above 4,000 barrels per day of 40° gravity crude oil (0.15 per cent sulphur) from 5,400 to 5,900 feet in the Chokrak sands of the Miocene. Izberbash is a large faulted anticline with major c osures on both sides of the fault. The Achi-Su field near Izberbash was discovered also in 1936, and though its initial yields are small, 70-200 barrels per day, the depth is very shallow, about 2,400 feet, and the structure is of large area extent. On the Apsheron Peninsula in Puta district, a notable discovery was made at Shangar. The Kergez and Kizil-Tepe fields, discovered prior to 1936, were actively developed and extended. In older fields of the Baku district, greater penetration into Pliocene oil measures of deeper oil fields uncovered additional reserves of major magnitude. South of the Apsheron Peninsula a major field was discovered at Pirsagat in 1936, and a second producer was completed in October, yielding 2,500 barrels from a depth of 4,500 feet. In the Northern Caucasus nea the Black and Azoff seas, several small fields were discovered in the Maikop and Kuban districts, the outstanding ones being Asphalt Mountain and Kutaiski in Maikop and Adagum and Keslerovo in Kuban. In the Ural Permian basin, considerable progress was made in exploration technique, and the basin is assuming the proportions of a major oil province.