UPDATE 1-Noble Energy CEO sees 2008 reserves at record

(Adds details, CEO quotes)

By Haitham Haddadin

NEW ORLEANS, April 7 (Reuters) - Noble Energy Inc (NBL.N: Quote, Profile, Research), an independent oil and gas company, will boost reserves to a record this year through domestic and international projects, Chief Executive Chuck Davidson said on Monday.

"We expect to continue to grow our reserves, and since we are at a record level, it will be a new record," Davidson told Reuters on the sidelines of the Howard Weil Energy Conference in New Orleans.

He declined to give a specific target for growing reserves, which hit a record 880 million barrels of oil equivalent by the end of 2007.

But he reiterated the company's previous guidance that Noble Energy expects to grow production by 7 percent this year.

Asked whether the growth will be from domestic or international operations, Davidson said: "It's balanced."

Noble Energy operates in basins in the United States including Colorado's Wattenberg field and Piceance basin, as well as in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, the Gulf Coast and the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. It also operates internationally in China, Ecuador, the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea, and West Africa.

"We are pursuing some opportunities that could give us substantial future growth," he told analysts at the conference in reference to the company's oil and gas development projects.