Book excerpt: Anatomy of a Paleozoic Basin: The Permian Basin, USA By any standard, the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico is a "super basin." With cumulative oil production of nearly 40 billion barrels (Bbbl) and annual production of nearly 2 Bbbl, it's currently one of the most important hydrocarbon-producing basins in the world. More than 29 Bbbl of this production have come from conventional (carbonate and sandstone) reservoirs, about 75 percent from carbonate reservoirs. Approximately 9-10 Bbbl of the basin's cumulative oil production have come from unconventional targets-primarily organic-matter-rich mudrocks and associated facies-during the last 10 years. The Permian Basin contains perhaps a greater volume of these mudrocks than that of any other basin, a major reason for its current global prominence among hydrocarbon-producing basins. The Permian Basin also contains one of the most extensive data sets in terms of wells drilled, cored wells, and adjacent outcrop analogs, providing a basis for studies that not only helps define the distribution of hydrocarbons but also serves as an excellent laboratory for examining basin-forming processes.This two-volume Bureau of Economic Geology Report of Investigations and AAPG Memoir contains 26 papers covering a breadth of Permian Basin topics, including 4 papers on the basin's structural geology, tectonics, and Precambrian geology; 4 papers on its paleontology and biostratigraphy; 16 on its sedimentology and stratigraphy; 1 on its reservoir systems; and 1 that provides a history and synthesis of the major depositional and deformational events that formed the basin. The goal of this set of papers is to capture, in a single publication, the wealth of information and knowledge about Permian Basin geology that has been generated over the 60 years that have passed since John Galley's early comprehensive paper on the basin in 1958.