The Fort Worth basin is a regional syncline of north-central Texas, approximately 150 miles in length, varying from 0 to 70 miles in width, and striking northwest-southeast. Bounded on the west by the positive Bend arch, on the north and northeast by sharp granite scarps of the Red River-Muenster buried ridges, the trough is limited at the south and southeast by Ouachita folding. Paleozoic sediments of Cambrian, Ordovician, Mississippian, and Pennsylvanian are preserved basinward, greatest thicknesses being noted in the Ellenburger (Beekmantown) and Strawn (Des Moines) groups. Major unconformities in the geologic section occur at the top of the Trenton (Viola), top of the Chester (Mississippian), and at the Pennsylvanian-Cretaceous overlap contact.

Oil fields in the basin are relatively small in areal extent but are economically profitable. Production to date has been largely governed by structural conditions, but local porosity variations are likewise influential. It is conservatively predicted that new basin oil to be found will be greater in quantity than either the amount produced to date or known reserves in place.

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