This study offers a high-frequency sequence stratigraphic model of carbonate-ramp strata of the San Andres Formation. It also documents, at the cycle scale,  the inner-ramp through outer-ramp portions of three high-frequency sequences and describes and maps carbonate facies within a high-frequency sequence framework.

Chert reservoirs of the Lower Devonian Thirtyone Formation represent a substantial part of the hydrocarbon resource in the Permian Basin. More than 700 million barrels of oil has been produced from these rocks, and an equivalent amount of mobile oil remains.