This review presents information on 1972 petroleum developments in 29 countries and areas. Ten countries had petroleum production, which totaled 1,602,167,000 bbl (4,377,504 b/d). This was a decrease of 5.1% from the previous year, and the sharpest production decline for the Latin America/Caribbean region since World War II. Venezuela's production, by far the major component (73.6% of the 1972 total), was down a marked 9.2% (approximately 117,000,000 bbl, or 329,000 b/d), also a post-War record. Output for the other producing countries, collectively, was up about 7%. This latter performance reflects mainly a dramatic increase for Ecuador, where the important Oriente fields came on stream in May, plus significantly higher volumes for Bolivia and Trinidad, and small increas s for Peru and Argentina. Production in Colombia was down considerably, and decreased slightly in Brazil and Chile. Industry drilling decreased to 1,703 wells, 184 fewer than in 1971. Both development and exploration subtotals were lower, by about 12 and 3%, respectively. Only Argentina drilled a significantly greater number of development wells over the previous year, and there were marked decreases in Chile, Colombia, and Venezuela. In exploration drilling, Venezuela reported a major increase to 64 wells, the highest in a decade; and Chile's effort was also decidedly up from recent years. Exploratory tests were sharply down in Argentina and considerably lower in Trinidad, compared with 1971. In all, exploration drilling is reported from 14 countries, including 5 which have no commercial production; but no new countries entered the producing ranks. Party-months of geologic and geophysical field work increased moderately (1,023 versus 964) over the previous year, most notably in Peru, where burgeoning activity in the Oriente was up about 7½ crew-years from 1971. The overall effort for the principal methods was: surface geology, 190 party-months (212 in 1971); seismograph, 764 (671); gravity, 48 (53); and airmagnetometer 3 (5). Wildcat effort on the Brazil continental shelf was maintained at the same high level of the previous 2 years, but no new discoveries are reported. The vigorous exploratory drilling of last year in eastern Ecuador and in eastern offshore Trinidad continued through 1972, but the success rate was considerably lower; major development programs for earlier discoveries were carried out in both of these areas. The big disappointment in 1972 exploration drilling came in Venezuela's South Lake Maracaibo contract acreage, where all 10 tests by the 3 operators were apparently unsuccessful. Honduras saw its second year of offshore tests, and onshore Belize the first exploration drilling in several years; 3 wells in the former and 5 in the latter were abandoned, all essentially dry. The more important acreage developments for the period were: (1) contracting of 5 additional major blocks to private companies, in northeastern Peru; (2) new petroleum legislation in Bolivia, enabling service-contract-type ventures, with the prospect that international oil companies will be returning to the scene; and (3) major obligatory year-end acreage reductions by existing concessionaires in eastern Ecuador, and announced plans to open these areas to service- or association-contract offers. In Argentina, no firm bids were received for major blocks in several basins, offered under service-contract arrangements in early 1972.