The review for 1977 presents information on petroleum developments in 31 countries from South America, Central America, the Caribbean area, and Mexico. Hydrocarbons were produced in 13 of these countries, for a total reported production of 1,685, 223,000 bbl of oil. Statistics on gas production were not available on all countries so total gas production could not be determined. Argentina, Mexico, Peru, and Trinidad had increases in production.

Major increases in development drilling were experienced in Argentina (private companies), Bolivia, Chile, and Colombia. Ecuador and Peru had slight decreases.

Continued exploratory efforts resulted in significant new discoveries in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Trinidad, and Venezuela. Recent exploratory successes in Mexico continued, as evidenced by the increase of reserves to 16 billion bbl from 11 billion bbl established at the end of 1976.