Welcome to Atrisco Oil & Gas!

Atrisco Oil & Gas, LLC exists to explore and protect the mineral rights of the Atrisco Land Grant.  Atrisco Oil & Gas is working in association with Tecton Energy, LLC, a Houston based exploration and development company, in an effort to answer the age old question of whether or not commercial hydrocarbons exist on the West Mesa. 

Oil and natural gas development is not new to the land grant.  The first commercial oil and gas development began on March 1920 when David J. Metzgar, then president of the Atrisco board of Trustees, signed the first lease to an outside interest to explore and develop oil and natural gas resources.  From 1925 through 1947, C. H. Conner held oil and gas leases in multi-year increments and Myrtle Conner held leases into the 1950s.

In 1959, the board of trustees granted permits to Armando Gianini to prospect for uranium and to Samuel Jelso to explore for oil and gas.  In the 1970’s Shell Oil was active on these lands and spent a considerable amount of money and time gathering data about the lands.  These efforts determined that hydrocarbons were present but no commercial success was ever realized.

Today, Tecton is taking advantage of much of Shell’s earlier work.  That research, coupled with better technologies, favorable economics and a little luck will hopefully lead to a different outcome.