El Paso Corp. raised its total unproved natural gas and oil reserves by an estimated 44% in 2009 from year-end 2008 levels, with most of the gains coming from the Haynesville and Eagle Ford shales, the Houston-based company reported Tuesday.

As of year-end 2009 El Paso had 5.1 Tcfe of estimated total risked unproved reserves, or 8.9 Tcfe unrisked, in addition to 2.75 Tcfe of proved reserves, it said. The totals include the company’s proportionate interest in Four Star Oil & Gas Co.

“One of our key goals for 2009 was to expand our unproved resource base, which, in turn, provides opportunities for future proved reserves and production growth,” said Brent Smolik, president of El Paso Exploration and Production Co. “Not only were we successful, but we added significant new resources in some of the most economically advantaged natural gas plays in North America.”

Most of the increase came from “extensive drilling opportunities” in the Haynesville and Eagle Ford shale programs, said El Paso. El Paso’s future drilling inventory, which includes proved undeveloped reserves, totals about 6 Tcfe of risked resource potential, or almost 6,000 drilling locations. At current activity levels this would represent more than 10 years of drilling inventory, according to the company.

About 2.475-3.62 Tcfe of the unproved reserves are in El Paso’s unconventional resources business, which consists primarily of the Haynesville and Eagle Ford shale plays, as well as coalbed methane operations in the Raton, Black Warrior and Arkoma basins.

An estimated 2.05-2.65 Tcfe of unproven reserves are included in El Paso’s conventional low-risk drilling program, which includes the Altamont Field, other Rockies programs, South Texas and Brazil development programs. It also includes tight gas drilling in the ArkLaTex area.

Conventional, higher-risk unproved reserves total 600 Bcfe-2.64 Tcfe, El Paso said. These higher-risk reserves are in the Gulf of Mexico, along the Texas Gulf Coast and in undrilled international exploration prospects in Brazil and Egypt.

©Copyright 2010Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.