Oil production from older producing basins onshore in western Europe continued to decline, but this was offset by increased production from the Ekofisk field in the Norwegian North Sea area, and from the first Danish offshore field to be commercially developed. Gas production in the British part of the southern North Sea increased to an annual average rate of 3.5 Bcf/d. In 1972 the most important exploration results continued to be in the North Sea basin. Large oil and gas discoveries were made in the British and Norwegian areas, and there were also favorable results from confirmation wells of 1971 discoveries and testing of wells suspended in 1971. New production licenses granted in the British offshore area in March included areas in the northern North Sea as well as we t of the Shetland Islands and in the Celtic Sea. Work obligations connected with these grants guaranteed a high level of exploration in the British North Sea area until at least 1978. Interest in European offshore prospects spread to the entire Atlantic shelf and to the Mediterranean Sea. The 1971 gas discovery south of Ireland proved of questionable commercial importance. The Amposta Marino oil field off eastern Spain was developed. Gas and condensate were found in a well in the Aegean Sea.

In the Soviet Union production of oil was 7,813,000 b/d and of gas 21.3 Bcf/d, both showing a lower growth rate than in recent years. A large-diameter pipeline provided a new outlet to the southeast for the large oil fields of the middle Ob' Valley in the West Siberian basin, and the giant Medvezh'ye gas field of the northern West Siberian basin was put on production to a pipeline to Ural industrial centers. New oil fields were discovered in western Siberia, and gas was found in a previously nonproductive basin between the Aral Sea and Lake Balkhash. A second large offshore oil field was found in the eastern Caspian Sea. Large-scale gas production started in East Germany.