The Jackson-Yegua Barrier/Strandplain Sandstone play is a prolific oil-producing trend in South Texas that has high average porosity (31 percent) and permeability (600 md). Nevertheless, it is characterized by low recovery efficiencies because of low average oil gravity, weak solution-gas drive, complex stratigraphy, and structural complications.

Geologic and engineering studies were conducted within fluvial/deltaic strata of a mature South Texas field to determine the impact of reservoir compartmentalization on secondary gas recovery. Stratton is one of several mature South Texas fields containing fluvial and deltaic gas reservoirs. This study documents the effect of depositionally controlled reservoir heterogeneity in a field with fluvially dominated reservoir architecture.

Coalbed methane production has been established in the Sand Wash Basin. Large coal resources, gas shows during drilling of coal beds, and high gas contents in some coals triggered initial development along the basin margins. Results to date have been disappointing. Coalbed wells have yielded little gas and large volumes of water. In the absence of a regional analysis, neither production data nor the basin's ultimate coalbed methane potential could be fully evaluated.