ABSTRACT
The Upper Gulf Coast District of Texas is composed of 29 counties in the extreme southeastern part of the state. A total of 169,195,600 barrels of oil, condensate and gasoline plant liquids was produced, representing a 9.3 per cent increase over 1949.
Drilling showed a 24.5 per cent increase over 1949 with 1,626 tests completed in 1950. There were 216 new-field wildcat tests drilled and these found 36 new fields, a discovery rate of 16.7 per cent. None of the 1950 discoveries are of major importance and several appear to be marginal. All of the trends were active. Fifteen of the discoveries were in the Frio, 9 in the Yegua-Cook Mountain, 9 in the Wilcox, 2 in the Miocene, and 1 in the Discorbis Oligocene.
In 1950 there were 1,410 tests drilled on producing structures as compared with 1,127 similar tests in 1949. These resulted in 1,019 producers, a successful completion rate of 77.9 per cent. Exploratory and development drilling on producing structures again added important reserves to the district’s total. The largest reserves resulted from exploration and exploitation on the flanks of piercement salt domes.
The reflection seismograph and subsurface geology receive credit for all of the 1950 new-field discoveries. Geophysical activity totaled 1,764 crew weeks, a decrease of 9.9 per cent from 1949.
It is anticipated that geophysical work, leasing and drilling will increase in 1951. The Yegua-Wilcox trend will probably be the most active.
