Oil and gas are ALWAYS found in the same types of basin and rocks, they just don't occur randomly underground. The Permian Basin in West Texas is a big example. Reservoirs are associated with subsurface traps and those traps are caused by certain types of features. Basins, ancient seabeds, meandering streams, marine reefs, etc. In the Gulf, these are very young rocks and the traps are almost always defined by faults. Along the Gulf Coast onshore there are a lot of reservoirs around salt domes, traps are formed by the breaking of the beds when the salt intruded upwards. In the Rockies, you have the Overthrust belt where beds and mountains were pushed up over existing rocks. These are a tiny number of examples.

In recent years, new technology has made unconventional reservoirs economical. Shale gas is big now. Horizontal drilling is great because of the accuracy we have in drilling. Unfortunately a lot of new technology is misused. We are an industry slow to learn from mistakes.

Unfortunately, the drillers and producers usually don't get a big return on their money. They absorb the risk. The oil biz is a lot like real estate, the guys flipping deals and companies are making out like bandits. The guys holding the drill bits don't.

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