The San Juan Basin extends 7,500 square miles across northwest N.M., and southwest Colo. Natural gas was first discovered here in 1921. Now a spry age of 104, it remains one of the nation’s oldest producing areas with sedimentary rock dating back to mid-Paleozoic times and a collision of supercontinents. Proclaimed the nation’s largest natural gas field in 2007 with 12.9 TCF of recoverable gas reserves, the San Juan 10 years later fell into decline with a mass exodus of its largest players selling off assets to smaller independents who banked on the theory where once finding oil and gas, oil and gas can be found again.

Reese Energy Consulting today is following the latest news from Fort Worth-based TXO Energy Partners, which reports it’s identified a natural gas motherlode in the Mancos Shale that could yield 3 TCFE. For numerous operators in this small subset of the basin, far away from the state’s southern Permian Delaware, the Mancos continues to reveal her hydrocarbon secrets with San Juan gold. TXO CEO Bob Simpson is betting on it.

A shale veteran who sold his XTO Energy in 2010 to ExxonMobil for $41 billion in an all-stock deal considered one of the largest transactions in history for an independent oil and gas company, Simpson took his new baby, TXO, public in 2023 with core assets in the Permian and San Juan. After building a Williston Basin powerhouse he created more than a decade ago, Simpson also leapt back into the Williston last June snapping up assets in the Elm Coulee field in Mont., and Russian Creek field in N.D., for $243 million in cash and 2.5 million common units of TXO. Where once finding oil and gas…