The paper discusses the stratigraphy and correlation of the various oil-field sections drilled to date in the Kuwait-Basra area. Sediments penetrated aggregate some 20,000 feet in thickness, and range in age from Pleistocene to probable Triassic. The Pleistocene to Lower Cretaceous succession is described in detail and is subdivided into formational rock units, all of which are defined, and some of which are here published for the first time. Furthermore, a brief generalized lithologic description is given of pre-Lower-Cretaceous strata penetrated in the Burgan deep test.

Sedimentation appears to have been essentially continuous from the Triassic onward, except for some sharp local breaks related to structure which occurred toward the end of the Middle Cretaceous, and except for a widespread unconformity of post-middle-Eocene age, and finally, of course, except for the minor post-Miocene movements responsible for the present day land surface.

Brief notes on the history of exploration and the discovery of oil in this area are also presented.