New York. In the Oriskany Sand area of southern New York, 41 wells were completed during 1941, 20 as gas wells with a combined open flow of 98,508,000 cubic feet, and 21 as dry holes, of which 8 can be considered as wildcat wells. No new producing areas were found during the year but the Howard area in Steuben County was developed from 1 well to a pool of 7 wells with a daily open flow of 6,929,000 cubic feet and 1 dry hole.

Production during the year from the Oriskany area continued to decline rapidly and the development of reserves by new drilling failed to equal depletion.

Eight wildcats were drilled during the year, all of which were unproductive. Three of these tests, located in Allegheny County, were drilled to the Oriskany and either found salt water, dry sand, or no sand present.

In Steuben County 4 tests were drilled, 3 of which encountered salt water in the Oriskany and the fourth was dry in the Medina sand.

One well located in Tompkins County encountered salt water in the Oriskany.

Pennsylvania. More attention was focused on the further development of the shallow-sand gas territory of western Pennsylvania during 1941 than at any time during the past decade. The results were encouraging. Not only were some old pools extended but several new ones were discovered. Outstanding among these was the Armbrust pool in Westmoreland County, producing from the Fifth sand of the Upper Devonian. About 600 acres are included in the developed area and the limits of the pool have not been defined. A number of wells with open-flow capacities varying from 1,000 to 5 million cubic feet of gas per day were completed in the Big Injun sand of the Mississippian in western Fayette and eastern Greene counties. No exceptional developments occurred in the oil fields. Production was approximately 3.5 per cent less than during the previous year. Successful deep drilling operations were confined almost entirely to the Summit gas pool in Fayette County. A producing well, located about 312 miles southwest of the southernmost of the earlier producers in the Summit pool, indicates that further exploration may extend considerably the productive area along the Chestnut Ridge anticline in that direction. Only five wells were completed in the Oriskany territory of north-central Pennsylvania, one of which was a smal 1 gas well and the others dry holes.

Ohio. Holes drilled in Ohio during 1941 numbered 1,561, of which 333 or 21 per cent produced oil, 701 or 45 per cent produced gas and 527 or 34 per cent were dry.

The total production was 3,547,534 barrels of oil produced from 24,801 wells. Exact figures on production and consumption of natural gas in Ohio are not available until late in the year. The hitherto unpublished figures for 1940 are 40,369 million cubic feet from approximately 7,000 active wells, and 129,856 million cubic feet consumed in the state during that year.

The locations of nine important outlying deep dry holes, the completions in the state by counties and by sands, with the average initial production by sands, are given in tabular form.

West Virginia. During the year 182 wells were drilled to or through the Oriskany sand in West Virginia. Of these, 166 were gas wells with a combined open flow of 764,568,000 cubic feet and 16 were dry.

The Elk-Poca and Sandyville Oriskany gas fields were extended to include 38 square miles of new territory. Eight of the 16 dry holes were drilled in defining the present boundaries of these fields. Two Oriskany wells, in the southeastern part of the Elk-Poca Oriskany field, were unsuccessfully deepened to the Clinton (Medina) sand.

An Oriskany test in Randolph County encountered salt water in the Oriskany. The Oriskany test in Roane County also encountered salt water.

The Oriskany test in Monongalia County encountered a showing of gas in the Huntersville chert but was dry in the Oriskany.

The Clinton test in Boone County was dry, as were the tests in Wood and Harrison counties. This latter test is the first deep rotary well in the state penetrating to a depth of 10,018 feet.

During the year the Department of Mines issued 1,087 drilling permits. Of this number, 495 were reported as gas wells, 48 as oil wells, 18 as combination oil and gas wells, 144 dry holes, 4 cancelled permits, and 369 unreported. During the year, 916 abandonment permits were issued, of which 472 were oil wells.

Kentucky (Eastern). During the year, 422 wells were drilled. Sixty were dry; 259 were gas wells developing an open flow of 116,963,000 cubic feet per day; 103 were oil wells developing an initial production of 903 barrels of oil; and 6 pressure wells were completed.

Producing sands were found in formations ranging from the Salt sand (Pennsylvanian) down to the Sunnybrook (Ordovician).

Most of the drilling was in the eastern part of the state in developing Devonian shale gas production and extending existing pools. The Rockhouse pool developed in Johnson City from the Big Six (Silurian) sand was the only important new field.

Tennessee (Eastern). During the year, 9 wells were completed in the area east of the Cincinnati arch, drilling a total of 13,705 feet. None of these wells can be classed as commercial although encouraging showings were found.

In the Cumberland Plateau area, several blocks of leases are still retained by a large company. In this area the pre-Mississippian remains essentially unexplored.

Maryland. One well was completed in the western Panhandle of Maryland. This well, located in the highly folded area of Garrett County, was completed at the total depth of 8,165 feet after encountering a showing of gas and salt water in the Oriskany sand at 8,096 feet.

Virginia. Two wells were completed during the year, 1 in Wise County as a dry hole through the Devonian shale at the total depth of 5,348 feet, and 1 in Rockingham County encountering less than 100,000 cubic feet in the Devonian shale and Oriskany sand at the total depth of 2,986 feet.

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