Rosetta Resources Inc., Houston, reports that it believes assertions made by Calpine Corp., San Jose, Calif., in its bankruptcy-related filing in regard to a 2005 asset sale to Rosetta are "misleading, incorrect and wholly unsupportable. Rosetta is confident that Calpine received full and fair value for the purchased assets and that Rosetta will prevail in any related litigation."

Formerly Calpine's E&P subsidiary, Rosetta management bought out the parent's E&P assets in the summer of 2005 for $1 billion, involving some 383 billion cubic feet equivalent of proved reserves in the Sacramento Basin of California, South Texas, the Gulf of Mexico and the Rockies.

"Rosetta believes that there is no basis in law or fact for Calpine's assertion that it can recover additional amounts from Rosetta with respect to its 2005 purchase of Calpine's remaining oil and gas assets.

"Moreover, Rosetta believes that Calpine's recent assertions regarding its 'in-depth' analysis following its bankruptcy and conclusions regarding value are seriously flawed and are inconsistent with economic reality in the oil and gas industry."

Calpine had received a fairness opinion from Deutsche Bank. "There is no basis for Calpine's unsupported assertion that the Deutsche Bank fairness opinion presented to Calpine's board was somehow flawed or rendered without sufficient information," Rosetta reports.

Calpine also had valuations from Goldman Sachs and an alternative proposal by Merrill Lynch when accepting the sale to Rosetta.

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