The San Andres evaporitic sequence in the Palo Duro Basin comprises several thick carbonate units in its lower part and many thin units in its upperpart. To the south, across the Northern Shelf of the Midland Basin, evaporites pinch out and carbonates predominate.

The Palo Duro Basin seemingly has all the elements necessary for hydrocarbon generation and accumulation: reservoirs, traps, source rocks, and sufficient thermal maturity. Porous facies in pre-Pennsylvanian, Pennsylvanian, and Permian strata are potential hydrocarbon reservoirs.

The San Andres Formation on the Northern and Northwestern Shelves of the Midland Basin is a progradational stratigraphic unit consisting predominantly of carbonate facies. Lithofacies include dolomite, laminated anhydrite and dolomite, massive bedded anhydrite, limestone, salt, and red beds.

The Salado-Tansill and Alibates Formations are the youngest evaporite and carbonate facies within a thick Permian sequence of evaporites, carbonates, and red beds in the Texas Panhandle.

Lower Permian (Wolfcampian) strata of the Palo Duro Basin consist of thick, terrigenous clastic and carbonate facies that were deposited in (1) fan-delta, (2) high-constructive delta, (3) carbonate shelf and shelf-margin, and (4) slope and basinal systems.

The Neogene Ogallala Formation is an alluvial apron that occurs east of the Rocky Mountains from South Dakota to the Southern High Plains of Texas. The Ogallala was deposited by coalescent, low-gradient, wet alluvial fans that headed in mountains to the west.

A broad zone of salt dissolution that affects parts of the Permian Salado, Seven Rivers, San Andres, Glorieta, and upper Clear Fork Formations occurs beneath the Canadian River Valley from New Mexico eastward toward Amarillo, Texas, and southeastward parallel to the eastern Caprock Escarpment.

Pennsylvanian clastic and carbonate strata were deposited in a variety of environments within the Palo Duro Basin. Maximum accumulation (totaling 750 m or 2,400 ft) occurred along a northwest-southeast axis.

Samples collected from 20 geographically widespread wells in the sparsely drilled Palo Duro Basin were analyzed for total organic carbon content (TOC). Highest values of TOC, up to 6.9 percent, occur in Upper Permian San Andres dolomite in the southern part of the basin.

The Upper Triassic Dockum Group of Texas and New Mexico is composed of 200 to 2,000 feet of complexly interrelated terrigenous clastic facies ranging from mudstone to conglomerate.