In 1983, the Bureau of Economic Geology published the Atlas of Major Texas Oil Reservoirs, a precedent-setting synthesis of key geological and engineering data on 450 major oil reservoirs grouped into 48 regional plays.

Reservoirs in the Permian Basin of Texas are estimated to have contained a total of 105.7 billion barrels (Bbbl) of oil at discovery. As of January 1985, these reservoirs had produced a cumulative volume of 25.3 Bbbl of oil, and proved reserves were calculated at 5.9 Bbbl.

Natural gas in the United States consists of proved reserves in known reservoirs, of inferred reserves and undeveloped resources within these reservoirs, and of undiscovered resources.

Plio-Pleistocene strata of offshore Texas having hydrocarbon exploration potential are restricted to the southeastern continental shelf and upper continental slope. This thick wedge of nearshore and deep-marine sediments firms the west margin of a late Neogene and Quaternary depocenter.