Part II focuses on six additional basins, selected as analogs of interior cratonic basins. Discussion of these analogs adds perspective and depth to our understanding of the character and evolution history of interior cratonic basins, the processes of basin development, and the controls on oil and gas occurrences. The analog basins include the Michigan and Williston basins in North America, the Baltic and Paris basins in Europe, the Parana basin in South America, and the Carpentaria basin in Australia. The largest of the basins is the Parana, which covers 1.4 million km²; the smallest is the Paris basin, which covers a little more than 100,000 km². Minimum subsidence depths of these basins range from 2000 m in the Carpentaria basin up to 6000 m i the Parana basin. Their lithologies range from a predominance of clastics in the Parana and Carpentaria basins to a mix of carbonates and clastics in the Michigan, Williston, Paris, and Baltic basins. Portions of the Michigan and Williston basins contain thick evaporites.

The basins evolved at different times. The Baltic basin began with rifting during latest Precambrian (Vendian) time; the Paris basin began with rifting beginning as early as the Late Carboniferous. The Michigan, Williston, Parana, and Carpentaria basins commenced as interior cratonic depressions, apparently not associated with rifting. The first two basins originated during the Middle Cambrian, the Parana during the latest Ordovician, and the Carpentaria during the Early to Middle Jurassic.

These basins contain multiple stratigraphic sequences bounded by major unconformities. Significant correlation with the Sloss sequences can be observed in several basins. Tectonic activity and eustasy controlled development of the sequences.

The Parana and Carpentaria basins were chosen to represent currently "dry" basins to provide perspectives on problems associated with exploring those types of basins. The Parana basin, for example, has pervasive dikes, sills, and thick basalt flows, whereas the Carpentaria basin has apparently young, immature source rocks.

Oil and gas fields are controlled by a wide variety of conditions in the four productive basins. Multiple plays and stacked reservoirs are typical of the more productive basins. The diversity of occurrences laterally and vertically in a single basin is a reflection of tectonic and stratigraphic controls. Oil and gas fields occur in basin margin and basin center positions under various play conditions. The widespread distribution of oil and gas in the more productive basins is not only a result of the widespread distribution of source rocks but also of long-distance migration vertically and laterally. Fracture control of hydrocarbon migration and production is indicated in the Michigan and Williston basins. The estimated ultimate recovery of liquid hydrocarbons ranges from 0.3 mill on bbl in the Paris basin to 3.9 billion bbl in the Williston basin. Significant quantities of gas have also been found in the Williston and Michigan basins.