Exploratory tests in Utah and Nevada averaged 4,488 feet in depth, or a total footage of 359,045 feet in 1955, a decrease of 8.7% from the preceding year. Greatly decreased drilling in Nevada was responsible for the decrease in total footage.

Discovery of the second commercial productive oil reservoir in the Paradox formation at North Boundary Buttes in the Paradox basin of Utah, and the discovery of commercial quantities of gas at San Arroyo in east-central Utah, high-lighted 1955 activities. New Uinta basin gas fields were discovered at Bluebell, Chapita Wells, Southman Canyon, and Walker Hollow. In east-central Utah new gas fields were found at Westwater Creek and East Seiber Nose. A new oil field was found in the same general area at Seiber Nose. Another Utah gas discovery was made at Joe's Valley on the Wasatch Plateau, and a gas-distillate field, producing from the Paradox formation in the Paradox basin, was found at Coalbed Canyon in 1955. There were no new discoveries in Nevada.

An important extension to the oil and gas field at Red Wash was made in Utah in 1955.

Dry exploratory tests on the Wasatch Plateau, in the Paradox and Uinta basins, in southern and east-central Utah, and in eastern Nevada furnished valuable geological information.

Exploratory methods in Utah are largely unchanged from previous years. The majority of locations were based on surface, seismic, or a combination of the two, methods. Gravity methods increased 1.7 times over 1954, due to preliminary evaluation of parts of the Utah portion of the Paradox basin and the Great Basin area of western Utah. Somewhat greater emphasis was placed upon subsurface studies and stratigraphic relationships in Utah. Nevada exploration was largely conducted by seismic, gravity, and surface methods.

Stratigraphic developments and changes in nomenclature during 1955 are summarized.

The principal trends expected in 1956 are: the same or decreased activity in eastern Nevada, very minor activity in the Utah part of the Basin-and-Range Province, and approximately the same amount of work in the Utah part of the Paradox basin, the Uinta basin, and the Wasatch Plateau