Drilling activity reached a new high during 1953; in all, 3,557 wells in all categories were drilled. Exploratory tests increased by 2.3 per cent while development tests increased by more than 10 per cent over last year's totals. New-field discoveries increased 32 per cent over 1952 and the discovery ratio was up 2.1 per cent. No major reserves are as yet indicated by any of the new discoveries and several of the new fields will probably receive no additional development. The many extensions and new-sand discoveries have helped to maintain a large reserve. Crude-oil production totaled 162,120,000 barrels, a slight decrease from the 162,580,000 barrels produced in 1952. Total gas production exceeded 1,687 billion cubic feet, and 25,440,000 barrels of liquid hydrocarbons we e recovered. This represents a 14.5 per cent increase over the 1,474 billion cubic feet of gas produced in 1952 and a 4 per cent increase over the 24,410,000 barrels of liquid hydrocarbons recovered the same year.