The discovery of oil in commercial quantities in the lower part of the Jurassic (?) Morrison formation at 6,664-6,693 feet on Wilson Creek dome, Moffat County, Colorado, in a joint test drilled by The Texas Company and The California Company constitutes one of the most important developments of the year.

Development of prolific oil production in the Pennsylvanian Minnelusa formation in the old Lance Creek field, Niobrara County, Wyoming, added a substantial new reserve in the region.

Substantial extensions were made during the year to the black oil productive areas of the Garland field, Big Horn County, Wyoming, and the Hamilton Dome field, Hot Springs County, Wyoming.

Four new gas-producing areas were drilled in Wyoming during the year. The most important of these is probably the East Allen Lake field where two wells with an initial production of 20 million and 40 million cubic feet per day, respectively, were completed in the Jurassic Sundance formation.

Three important dry holes were drilled within the plains region of eastern Colorado. While these failures are discouraging and will probably tend to retard development to some extent, they by no means conclusively condemn the territory. The effect of these dry holes was partly offset by an encouraging showing of oil obtained in a porous Pennsylvanian limestone, tentatively correlated as Kansas City, at 4,808-4,813 feet in the Gulf Oil Corporation's U.P.-Larsen well No. 1 in the Kit Karson area, Cheyenne County, Colorado.

All of the major operators of the region carried out active exploratory campaigns during the year. Ten companies had seismic crews in the field. Geophysical investigations consisted largely of reconnaissance surveys throughout large, Tertiary-covered areas for the purpose of mapping the regional structure of the pre-Tertiary formations.