The term Raton basin is vague and ambiguous. The name as herein used is applied to the area lying between T. 15 N. on the south; and the State line on the north; and between the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the west; and a southeast and east boundary extending approximately from the city of Las Vegas to the southeast corner of Colfax County and thence northward to the State line.

The available data are too limited to permit anything approaching a reasonable evaluation of the prospects for oil or gas production. Certain data are presented merely in the hope that they may serve as at least a partial guide for investigating the area.

Production possibilities for oil and/or gas appear to be largely limited to beds of Cretaceous and Lower Pennsylvanian age. The character of the Cretaceous beds leaves much to be desired for reservoir purposes. Likewise, the area underlain by the more prospective of the Cretaceous beds is rather limited in extent.

The Pennsylvanian beds offer more hope as reservoir rocks than do the Cretaceous beds. However, their distribution in subsurface is very questionable. Two distinct possibilities as to their presence in the northern part of the New Mexico portion of the basin are presented.

Subsurface control for the area is largely limited to regional data on the top of the pre-Cambrian. Over much of the area surface data indicate a relatively simple post-Cretaceous structural history.

A few surface structural features are known to be present in the basin. Among the better known are: Turkey Mountain in T. 20 N., R. 19 E.; Ocate in T. 21 N., R. 18 E., and an unnamed feature mainly in T. 25 N., R. 24-25 E. Questionable section at depth appears to have been the deterrent against testing these features.

The New Mexico part of the Raton basin must be given serious consideration for production possibilities because of appreciable thicknesses of marine beds of Cretaceous and Lower Pennsylvanian age over at least considerable areas. However, much work remains to be done before any serious drilling program should be started

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