The total number of wells drilled in West Virginia during 1964, as of March 25, 1965, was 1,189, a decrease (1,419 in 1963) of 230, or 16.2 per cent. Permits to drill or deepen, issued by the Oil and Gas Division of the West Virginia Department of Mines, totaled 1,327 (1,427 in 1963), a decrease of 100, or 7.0 per cent. Forty-six (46) drilling permits were cancelled during the year.

Abandoned during the year were 68 gas wells and 53 oil wells, or a total of 121 wells. Information on the exact number of abandoned wells drilled since May, 1929, is not available, because the wells were abandoned with their original drilling permit numbers. Wells completed in 1964 were: gas, 620; oil, 74; oil and gas, 280; storage, water-injection, brine, rock salt, water, and pressure wells, 65; dry holes, 150; total, 1,189 (357 unreported as of March 25, 1965). Compared with 1963, gas wells decreased 162, or 20.7 per cent; oil wells decreased 19, or 20.4 per cent; oil and gas wells increased 38, or 15.7 per cent; storage and other wells decreased 29, or 30.9 per cent; and dry holes decreased 16 wells, or 9.6 per cent. The percentage of dry holes (among the total number of completio s) was 12.6 per cent in 1964.

Total footage drilled was 3,152,383 feet, a decrease of 602,532 feet, or 16 per cent below 1963 (3,754,915 ft.). The average depth of the wells (2,650 ft.) increased only 4 feet over the 1963 average (2,646 ft.), or 0.2 per cent. The wells ranged from 67 to 13,999 feet in depth, compared with 60 to 14,595 feet in 1963.

The total daily initial open flow of the gas wells was 1,196,912 Mcf, a decrease of 296,951 Mcf, or 19.9 per cent, from the 1963 total (1,493,863 Mcf). The capacity of the gas wells ranged from 10 to 44,000 Mcf compared with 8 to 39,200 Mcf in 1963. The total daily initial oil production was 8,468 bbls., a decrease of 4,368 bbls. from 1963 (12,836 bbls.), or 34.1 per cent. The capacity of the oil wells ranged from 1 to 440 bbls. compared with 0.5 to 800 bbls. in 1963. The number of wells drilling or unreported at the end of the year was 452, only 12 less than in 1963 (464), a decrease of 2.6 per cent.

The Survey receives copies of all well records filed with the Oil and Gas Division of the State Department of Mines and numerous drilling and scout reports from some major companies which operate in the State. These records and reports inform the Survey of the status of practically every drilling well in the State. The initial volumes from a few of the fractured wells are not given in the reports because the wells still are being tested. The depths of these few wells are included in the total footage drilled, but the table does not include their initial production. Approximately 90 per cent of the producing wells drilled during the year were fractured. The total initial gas and oil production, after fracturing, is generally several times the production before fracturing. Several wells after fracturing, increased in production from less than a 10 Mcf gas "show" to more than 6,000,000 cu. ft. The West Virginia University's Engineering Experiment Station collects information concerning hydraulic fracturing of wells and issues an annual report showing the details for each of the wells fractured.

The average production of gas wells was 1,575 Mcf compared with 1,654 Mcf in 1963, a decrease of 75 Mcf, or 4.8 per cent. In calculating this average initial gas volume per well, the number of gas wells (620) was increased by half of the number of oil and gas wells (140), or 760 wells. The average initial oil production from each well was 40 bbls., compared with 60 bbls. in 1963; this is a decrease of 20 bbls., or 33.3 per cent. Half of the oil and gas wells (140) was added to the 74 oil wells (or a total of 214) in calculating this average.

Preliminary production estimates for 1964 follow: gas 245,200,000 Mcf, compared with 260,000,000 Mcf in 1963, a decrease of 14,800,000 Mcf, or 5.7 per cent; oil 3,370,000 bbls., an increase of 20,000 bbls. above the 1963 estimate (3,350,000 bbls.), or 0.6 per cent. It is estimated that 50,000,000 Mcf of gas went into storage in 1964. A large volume of gas from four other States is also stored in West Virginia. The estimated number of producing wells in West Virginia at the end of 1964 includes 19,803 gas wells and 13,205 oil wells. The table of operations gives the statistics for each county.