Preliminary data compiled by IHS Energy Group, Geneva and Houston, show that some 2,900 exploration and delineation wells were completed outside of North America in 2000. This 22% increase from 1999 reflects the surging oil price throughout much of the year. The boost in activity led to success as companies found 11.2 billion barrels of oil through new-field wildcat drilling. The biggest increase in total drilling activity (including exploration, delineation, appraisal and development) was in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS or former Soviet Union), up 60%. Latin American action rose a healthy 40%. Also registering gains were Africa, up 26%, and the Far East, up 18%. Drilling activity in Europe, the Middle East and Australasia remained flat compared with the previous year. Exact figures for completed wells are not available for some areas, such as Russia and onshore China, where it is known that a high percentage of the total wells were drilled. In exploration and delineation alone, the Far East was the most active region outside North America with 1,050, or 37%, of the world's such wells drilled, and representing an 18% increase from 1999 results for that region. This was followed by the CIS with 22% of the exploration and delineation wells drilled. The high level of activity by "local" operators onshore China and Russia reflects strongly in these figures. Meanwhile, Europe and Latin America had similar levels of activity with 12% each of the total wells completed, while Africa registered 9% and Australasia and the Middle East regions both recorded 4%. The year was dominated by the supergiant Kashagan East oil discovery made in Kazakhstan in the northern Caspian Sea, which may turn out to be one of the biggest oil finds in the world in many years. Estimates of recoverable reserves vary between 6- and a staggering 20 billion barrels of oil, plus a significant amount of gas. Major finds were also reported in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad, Egypt, Nigeria, Colombia and Angola during the year.