The southeastern states include Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Oil and gas are produced from formations ranging in age from late Paleozoic to early Tertiary.

Drilling activity increased 3.8% in 1966 to 896 tests. Greatest activity was in the deep Jurassic trend of central Mississippi, where several new oil reservoirs and one sour-gas reservoir were discovered; and in the relatively shallow Eocene Wilcox trend of southwestern Mississippi, where most wells are drilled each year. Other trends, and other states, had little activity. Success ratios increased, both for exploratory and development wells.

Field development was most successful in the Wilcox with approximately 8 of 20 new discoveries apparently having excellent reserves.

Geophysical activity was down 25.7%, because of a sharp decrease in seismic exploration in Alabama. Subsurface geology and seismic data for deep trends were the main exploratory methods.

The success operators had last year should increase drilling activity in the southeastern states in 1967. The Jurassic and Wilcox trends should become the most active.