This Chronicle article reports that an independent law firm report on El Paso Corp‘s restatement of reserves earlier this year concludes that El Paso employees provided estimates of proven oil and gas reserves that “they knew or should have known were incorrect at the time they were reported.” Haynes and Boone‘s report also found El Paso employees from 1999 through 2003 “used aggressive and at times unsupportable methods” to book proven gas and oil reserves. In February, El Paso announced that it was reducing its proven reserves estimates by 1.82 trillion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent, representing 35 percent of its reserves as of Jan. 1, 2003. As a result, the Securities and Exchange Commission is commenced an investigation into the reserve revision, and the El Paso board hired Haynes and Boone to conduct an investigation and report on the matter. Earlier posts may be reviewed here regarding the El Paso reserve overstatement.