With the current production decline rates in the Gulf of Mexico and restricted access to a number of mineral-rich regions across the U.S., producers are having to look in untraditional places to keep up with the country’s thirst for natural gas. On Wednesday, Ladera Ranch, CA-based Victory Energy Corp. said it has secured participation in a joint venture for the Mesa Prospect in New Mexico with Eldorado Exploration.

Located in Roosevelt County, NM, the prospect has a proposed drill depth of 7000 feet to target the Cisco Carbonate Reef, Canyon Carbonate Reef, Strawn Sands, and the Montoya Dolomite. The Mesa prospect is on a Passive Induced Polarization (PIP) identified Pennsylvanian Carbonate Reef that is over 25,000 acres in size.

The joint venture has over 11,000 net acres under lease over the heart of the geological structure. The publicly-traded acquisition and development company said the possible reserves under the lease could be over 1 Tcf of recoverable natural gas, which at the current price of $6/Mcf would equate to a possible $6 billion value of production for the prospect.

PIP is a proprietary process that uses a sensor unit, which becomes polarized over a hydrocarbon deposit. Victory Energy said PIP identifies the presence of hydrocarbons with a high degree of accuracy and the relative strength of the signal is an indicator of the volume of oil or gas. Drilling records of nearby wells, seismic and PIP were all used in identifying the Mesa prospect. Irvine, CA-based Eldorado Exploration, who owns the PIP process, will operate the field if the well is successful.

“Victory Energy has selected this, a prime prospect to participate in,” said Jon Fullenkamp, CEO of Victory Energy. “The due-diligence of the prospect and the process, Passive Induced Polarization, indicate drilling a well on the first location has a high degree for success as the operator has completed 8 wells in a row.”

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