oil and gas increased needs for domestic petroleum reserves accompanied by rising world prices have prompted record levels of exploration and overall industry activity reflecting these circumstances utah's wholly owned ladd petroleum corpora tion a petroleum exploration and pro duction company responded with continued profitability gains in 1975 the united states political climate is the major problem currently confronting the oil and gas industry in march 1975 congress voted to eliminate the deple tion allowance for all integrated produc ing companies and to reduce drastically the depletion allowance for most others thereby removing an important incentive from the nation's exploratory efforts congressional action has also entered into the area of crude oil pricing more desirably the province of the free market costs for services and equipment are rising dramatically and required funds for exploration can only be committed if public policy allows industry an oppor tunity in a free market environment to earn a satisfactory return on its high risk investment it is imperative that legislative action be redirected so that our country can maintain a secure and longer lasting domestic supply of oil and gas from its headquarters in denver colorado ladd operates producing prop erties in most important domestic and canadian petroleum producing areas excluding alaska and offshore areas a sharply higher budget for oil and gas exploration enabled ladd to partici pate in a substantially greater level of exploratory activity in 1975 new crude oil and natural gas discoveries made in louisiana oklahoma wyoming and alberta contributed to the unusually high success ratio achieved in 1975 although only a minimal amount of newly dis covered reserves has thus far been assigned to the proven producing cate gory ladd anticipates that further devel opment will result in significant additions to reserves the company's oil and gas exploration budget is expected to in crease even further in 1976 and ladd anticipates that its participation in the drilling of exploratory test wells will approximately double during the year in 1975 the company produced 2,435,000 barrels of crude oil up 14 from the 2,141,000 barrels produced during 1974 natural gas production of 26.9 billion cubic feet was down 5 from the 28.4 billion cubic feet for 1974 dur ing 1975 development drilling of previ ously proven properties and expansion of secondary activities were particularly successful and daily productivity rates are currently increasing lacking addi tional adverse congressional action it is expected that ladd will participate in a substantially greater number of develop ment operations in 1976 at a tank battery near enid oklahoma a ladd petroleum technician drops a thief into crude oil to determine oil quality and check for water and basic sediment contaminants before the oil is sold to a refinery at the gomez field in west texas natural gas operations in which the company has a substantial interest were expanded during fiscal 1975 year-end figures show five wells in the field produced 11 billion cubic feet of natural gas which was sold in the interstate market a sixth well was nearing completion at fiscal year-end