CNX Gas Corp. announced yesterday that its land holdings may contain nearly three times as much coalbed methane, oil and natural gas than originally estimated a year ago.

The company previously had announced that it controlled 1.13 trillion cubic feet in proven reserves of the underground fuels, a number based on measurements at active wells. But after five months of cataloging data from sources ranging from land ownership records to engineering tests, CNX now estimates that another 2.04 trillion cubic feet of unproven reserves lie beneath 1.6 million acres of its land, with another 640,000 acres still to be evaluated.

President and Chief Executive Officer Nicholas J. DeIuliis and his management team gave investors a rundown of the newly calculated assets and their potential use in a meeting at the Renaissance Hotel, Downtown, yesterday morning.

The company plans to begin exploring the potential of two sites by Labor Day -- a 548,000-acre coalbed methane site in Central Pennsylvania, designated "Nittany," and a 70,000-acre shale site spanning western Kentucky and southern Illinois, called "Cardinal." Beyond that, Mr. DeIuliis deflected questions about specifics by saying that such projections would affect the company's guidance, which he said remains unchanged.

Mr. DeIuliis began the meeting by citing Andrew Carnegie's maxim, "Put all of your good eggs in one basket, then watch that basket."

The new estimates of the company's resources were like discovering that they had a bigger basket and a lot of good eggs, he said.

CNX, based in South Park, was spun off from Consol Energy last August and did an initial public offering in January that left its corporate parent still holding 81 percent of its stock. CNX stock was down 37 percent yesterday, closing at $27.20.