In January 1997, Manti joined Riata Energy of Amarillo, Texas in exploring and developing the 300,000 acre Longfellow Ranch located in Pecos and Terrell Counties. The ranch is highly prospective in numerous horizons and has significant trend production in the Wolfcamp (Packenham), Caballos, and Devonian (Grey Ranch). Longfellow is a collective reference name for the four RRC recognized fields: Bitterweek, Pinion, Rio Caballos, and Elsinore (Wolfcamp). The field was discovered in March of 1982 when Tenneco drilled and completed a 6200' rank wildcat well in the Caballos/Tesnus and later the Dimple formations. Tenneco followed up with 2 offsets in 1983 and the 3 wells had produced 25.2 Bcf as of 1997. The field remained relatively dormant for the next 11 years with only 6 additional wells added by the end of 1995.

Manti was faced with several challenges when starting the development of Longfellow. Prior to 1997, landowner restrictions severely limited any exploration activity. Field sales averaged 30 MMD (methane), but the field was also facility constrained. Complex thrusted geology had presented significant challenges to mapping and drilling.

Debottlenecking increased methane sales to 35 MMD be December 1997. Since forming the joint venture, Manti/Riata drilled wells on a continuous rigline primarily targeted at the Caballos. Drilling costs were reduced by 50% from prior operator to $800k/well. Also, additional subsurface control gained through drilling, together with 2D seismic, defined a "sweet spot" for the Caballos Novaculite and increased EUR to 3 Bcf methane per well.

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Driven by Manti and Riata, development increased in 1997 and accelerated dramatically after the field buy-out of Fina Oil and Gas in May of 1998. In less than 2 years, 30 wells were drilled and completed, resulting in a near 4 fold increase in production to the daily rate of 60 MMcfd. All told, Manti completed 105 wells since 1997 and increased total reserves to 116 Bcf. Longfellow was sold to National Energy Group in December 2005.