In 1970 oil production in western Europe was 369,520 b/d, down 3.3% from 1968, because no major new discoveries had been put on production. Future increased production is expected because of important discoveries in the northern North Sea off Norway and Scotland, where large flows of oil were made by several new-field wildcats. A significant oil discovery was made in the Dutch North Sea area also and another off the coast of northeastern Spain. Gas production increased sharply in the British sector of the North Sea and from the Groningen field of The Netherlands. New gas fields were found in the British and Dutch North Sea areas. Adjudication of the North Sea boundaries of The Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark provided Germany with a corridor to the median line of the sea Much of the originally licensed area in the British North Sea area was released but new licenses were granted in Scottish waters and in the Irish Sea. There were new gas discoveries and an oil discovery in the Austrian Molasse zone. In France there was a gas discovery, and a well in southwestern France made a new drilling depth record for western Europe of 21,695 ft. In northwest Germany there were 3 important Permian gas discoveries in central Oldenburg and a gas discovery was made in Bavaria.

New exploration permits were granted offshore of Italy, but there was no reported success in exploratory drilling. Three gas discoveries were made in The Netherlands and one onshore in the United Kingdom. The first offshore wells were drilled off Ireland, Yugoslavia, and Greece. In the Soviet Union production of oil rose to 7,038,000 b/d and of gas to 19.3 Bcf/d. Production increased from the large oil fields of the West Siberian basin and the Mangyshlak Peninsula as new pipeline facilities were completed. New gas fields were found in the northern West Siberian basin and in Central Asia, and new oil fields in the central West Siberian basin, the north Caucasus, the eastern Ukraine, the Baltic coast, and in Sakhalin Island in the Far East.