UPDATE 3-Taqa eyes Canada bond issue; Q3 earnings lag

* Taqa may sell bonds in Canada to refinance debt

* Taqa to slow down acquisition plans

* Abu Dhabi's Taqa makes 90 mln dirhams in Q3

* Misses analysts' forecasts

* Revenues hit by lower oil and gas prices

(Recasts with plans to sell bonds)

By Stanley Carvalho

ABU DHABI, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi National Energy Co TAQA.AD (TAQA) said it may sell bonds in Canada in the first quarter to refinance debt and would slow down its acquisition plans, after reporting forecast-lagging quarterly earnings.

The company said earlier on Wednesday net profit fell almost 90 percent in the third quarter due to lower oil and gas revenues.

Earnings of 90 million dirhams ($24.5 million) fell short of an average forecast of 224 million dirhams from analysts polled by Reuters. Taqa made a net profit of 723 million dirhams in the third quarter last year.

"We would consider a Canadian bond offering in the first quarter ... we are thinking of 500 million to 750 million Canadian dollars and it is for refinancing existing bank debt," Chief Financial Officer Doug Frasier told a conference call.

The energy firm, which said on Oct. 5 it was on track to spend about $1 billion in the fourth quarter, was also consolidating its existing portfolio.

"We want to consolidate existing portfolios and there won't be large acquisitions ... there will be a lot of internal investments and less of acquisitions," the firm's new General Manager Carl Sheldon said.

Shelton said commodities pricing amplified the drop in profit. "Year-on-year comparisons are affected by a significant difference in commodities pricing, especially when compared to Q3 2008 during which oil prices reached a peak of over $140, before falling below $35 in Q1 2009."

Prices have slowly recovered throughout 2009, trading at more than $75 a barrel overnight CLZ9 LCOZ9.

Revenue from oil and gas was 1.4 billion dirhams in the third quarter compared with 2.05 billion dirhams in the same quarter last year.

REFINANCING

Fraiser said Taqa is "very liquid with $3 billion in cash and undrawn credit facilities". But, two credit facilities are coming up for renewal next year and have to be refinanced.

One is a $1 billion facility from National Bank of Abu Dhabi which is currently undrawn and the other is a 1.3 billion Canadian dollars credit of which $1.1 billion is drawn so far.

Taqa is expecting upstream business "to perform better with commodity prices going up. Clearly there are positive factors ..." said Sheldon when asked about his fourth-quarter outlook.

Taqa's international and domestic downstream business contributed 52 percent of total revenues during the third quarter. The remainder came from upstream activity revenues of 1.5 billion dirhams, including gas storage and other revenue.

"On first glance, Taqa's results came below our estimates and it is due to lower than expected revenues from oil and gas," said Hala Fares, analyst at Shuaa Capital.

"We had estimated revenues of 4.9 billion dirhams for third quarter, but their electricity and water revenues were in line with expectations."

Taqa's electricity and water business revenue was up 11 percent to 1.6 billion dirhams in third quarter due to expansion of two projects in the UAE.

The firm continued its acquisition drive in the third quarter, buying DSM Energy. It also acquired interests in Dutch North Sea assets while UK unit Taqa Bratani took over from Shell UK Exploration as operator of North Sea Brent system pipeline and facilities.

Finance costs have decreased year-on-year, to 904 million dirhams in the third quarter compared with 984 million dirhams for the same period in 2008, as a result of Taqa's bond buyback, the statement said. (Writing by John Irish and Inal Ersan; Editing by Simon Jessop)