Production

The Bend Arch separates the Fort Worth Basin from the Eastern Shelf of the Midland Basin. It is a northward plunging elongate structural flexure extending from the Llano Uplift to the Red River Uplift. The arch occupies the eastern edge of the earlier formed Concho Platform, but did not develop until the Fort Worth Basin was filled and the Midland Basin began to subside. During Late Mississippian and Early Pennsylvanian rapid subsidence of the Forth Basin provided an eastward facing monoclinal flexure along the eastern margin of the Concho Platform. With postorogenic, epeiric uplift in the Ouachita Geosyncline at the end of the Desmoinesian Epoch, the eastern flank of the Fort Worth basin began to rise. This uplift to the east caused a gradual westward tilting on the entire Concho Platform and led to a westward shift in the depocenter of the Fort Worth Basin as it was filled and subsequent Strawn fluvial-deltaic sediments prograded westward onto the Concho homocline.

Accelerated subsidence in west-central Texas during late Desmoinesian and Missourian time initiated development of the Midland Basin. This brought about tilting of the eastern portion of the Concho Platform to produce the structural closure that defines the present Bend Arch. The Bend Arch thus resulted from basinal deformation in surrounding areas and was not the result of structural uplift.

The first indication of hydrocarbons in the area were shows of oil and gas in wells drilled for water during the mid-nineteenth century. Sporadic exploration for petroleum began at the conclusion of the Civil War, and the first commercial oil accumulations were found in the early 1900's.