Some El Abra Formation carbonate reservoirs produce from fractured and brecciated rocks resulting from paleokarstic events.

The western margin of the Gulf of Mexico front of the Sierra Madre Oriental exposes Albian-Cenomanian rocks of the El Abra Formation. In the Actopan Platform, these outcrops allow the study of the paleokarst development in peritidal rocks. Included in the karst are dissolutional, depositional, fracturing, brecciation, and collapse features. Toucasia wackestone beds of restricted-marine lagoonal to intertidal environment overlay the paleokarst.

Similar events also occur in subsurface Albian-Cenomanian carbonate rocks around the Gulf of Mexico: Jordan Knoll (eastern Gulf of Mexico) and San Marcos and Cordoba Platforms (northwestern and western Gulf of Mexico).

Some of the paleokarsted rock intervals have been studied only by space-core samples or by geophysical methods (Jordan Knoll). The Actopan Platform rocks allow an Albian-Cenomanian model to be developed and to be compared to similar rocks around the Gulf of Mexico.