Coral Energy, the long-time North American trade name for Royal Dutch Shell plc’s natural gas marketing activities in the United States and Canada, will officially change its name beginning in October.

Effective Oct. 1, Houston-based Coral Energy Holding LP will become Shell Energy North America (US) LP, and Coral Energy Canada Inc. will become Shell Energy North America (Canada) Inc. Both companies will do business as Shell Energy North America in their respective countries.

“Approximately two years ago, Shell became the sole owner of Coral Energy,” said Shell Energy North America CEO Mark Hanafin. “Changing our name was a natural progression from the buyout to more clearly illustrate our relationship to Shell and the Shell brand.” He noted that Shell’s companies “have always operated according to Shell’s recognized business principles and operational excellence…However, we wanted to make sure it was clear to everyone that there was a direct connection.”

Coral is one of the leading North American gas marketing companies, according to NGI‘s rankings, and it was the third largest in the first three months of 2007 (see Daily GPI, June 21). Coral also increased its marketing reach in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada earlier this year with the purchase of Avista Energy Inc., the energy merchant arm of Avista Corp. (see Daily GPI, July 3).

All other Coral Energy companies — including but not limited to Coral Energy Resources LP, Coral Power LLC and Coral Energy Management LLC — will continue to operate as subsidiaries of Shell Energy North America (US) LP. All existing contracts written under the Coral Energy Holding LP and Coral Energy Canada Inc. company names will be unaffected by the name change and, in the United States, all Coral Energy subsidiaries will continue operation as subsidiaries of Shell Energy North America (US) LP.

As Shell Energy North America, the company will continue to serve commercial and industrial users, major retailers, local gas distribution companies, utilities, independent power producers, retail energy aggregators and oil and gas companies, supported by a host of flexible and integrated marketing, trading, risk management and asset management tools and services.

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