This report covers that part of the Gulf Coastal Province located in North Louisiana and Arkansas, and the Paleozoic area of northwestern Arkansas. The district includes 26 parishes of North Louisiana and all of Arkansas.

There was an over-all increase in drilling activity in 1961 as compared with the previous year. In North Louisiana the increase in the number of wells drilled was due to increases in both exploration and development drilling, primarily in the shallow Wilcox and Saratoga-Annona Chalk areas. Arkansas showed a decrease in both development and exploration drilling activity.

Fifteen new fields were discovered in North Louisiana and 5 new fields were discovered in Arkansas. Sandstones of the Cotton Valley Formation accounted for the largest number of new-field discoveries in North Louisiana. Three of the new-field discoveries in Arkansas were in sandstones of Pennsylvanian age, 1 was Mississippian and 1 was Upper Cretaceous.

The most important exploration activity in Arkansas was in search of gas in the Arkoma basin in the northwestern part of the state. Exploratory drilling was dominant in the Wilcox and Tuscaloosa areas in the eastern part of North Louisiana and in the western part the Saratoga and Annona Chalk areas were most active. Interest was again shown in the Hosston and Cotton Valley of Jackson, Lincoln, and Ouachita Parishes.

Exploration activity will probably remain about the same during 1962 as was present in 1961. Arkansas' most important activity will be centered in the Arkoma basin while activity in North Louisiana will again be centered in the Wilcox, Tuscaloosa, Hosston-Cotton Valley, and Saratoga-Annona Chalk areas.