This review covers 25 reporting countries in South America and the Caribbean area. During the review year, geological and geophysical field effort was expended in search of new petroleum reserves in 16 of the 25 countries but this effort totalled only 1,298 party-months--down 25% from the preceding year. Wildcat drilling in 1961 increased 7.2% over the 1960 figure. During the year 374 exploratory wells were drilled in 14 of the reporting countries and 87 of these wildcats were completed as oil or gas producers for a success ratio of 30%. Finally, oil production for the year from the subject area totalled 1,318,610,000 bbls., up 4.2% over the preceding year. Some 80% of this total production came from Venezuela; 8 other countries--all of which have been on a producing basi for many years--provided the remainder. No new countries came on production during 1961. Substantial net acreage relinquishments of concession areas during the year by private companies are reported from Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Peru.