Kansas experienced a year of increased activity both in development and wildcatting, but results in the latter were relatively less fruitful. The number of total completions increased 33.9 per cent over 1939 and the dry hole percentage dropped from 24.7 per cent to 20.3 per cent. Initial oil production per well fell slightly from 1,577 barrels to 1,561 barrels, but the completion of 1,421 oil wells developed about 2,200,000 barrels of new potential compared with 1,500,000 barrels of new potential in 1939. Despite less activity in the Forest City basin, wildcatting increased from 95 completions in 1939 to 145 in 1940, but no important pools have yet been developed among the 23 discoveries. The most promising, as well as the most important of these pools, is the Ray pool in Phillips County, which previously had had but one small pool. In the Forest City basin, an oil and gas discovery of doubtful value was made in the McLouth pool of Jefferson County. The Bemis-Shutts, Burnett, Bornholdt, Trapp, Hall-Gurney, and Zenith pools accounted for 42 per cent of the new wells and 61 per cent of the new potential. Numerous extensions to old pools were made and many pools were joined.

In Nebraska, the Falls City pool of Richardson County was the scene of the completion of 25 oil wells and seven dry holes. This pool produces low-gravity oil from a dolomite in the upper part of the Devonian that is generally referred to as "Hunton." The wells respond favorably to acid treatment, but water encroachment is rapid and it is doubtful that "Hunton" production in this pool will ever be of much importance. Twenty-eight wildcat dry holes and one small oil well were completed elsewhere in Nebraska in 1940.

The Forest City basin play in Missouri resulted in the completion of seven additional deep failures and northeastern Missouri drew seven dry holes. There was also some moderately successful shallow gas development in the area east of Kansas City. There was a little intermittent drilling in Iowa, and some in the Dakotas, but the latter states were the scene of much checkerboard leasing and exploratory work.