**EXHIBIT 31**

 

August 14,2003

 

Via EDGAR

Securities andExchange Commission

JudiciaryPlaza

450 FifthStreet, N.W.

Washington,D.C. 20549

 

Re:                               Rule 13a-14(a)/15d-14(a)Certification (Certification pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Actof 2002)

 

**CERTIFICATION**

 

I, Robert L.Griffin certify that:

 

1.     Ihave reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of Eastern American NaturalGas Trust, for which The Bank of New York acts as Trustee;

 

2.     Basedon my knowledge, this quarterly report does not contain any untrue statement ofa material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make thestatements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements weremade, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this quarterly report;

 

3.     Basedon my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial informationincluded in this quarterly report, fairly present in all material respects thefinancial condition, distributable income and changes in trust corpus to of theregistrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this quarterly report;

 

4.     Iam responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls andprocedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)), or forcausing such controls and procedures to be established and maintained, for theregistrant and have:

 

a)     designedsuch disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such controls and proceduresto be designed, to ensure that material information relating to the registrant,including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to me by other withinthose entities, particularly during the period in which this quarterly reportis being prepared;

 

b)    evaluatedthe effectiveness of the registrant’s disclosure controls and procedures andpresented in this report my conclusions about the effectiveness of

 

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the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the periodcovered by this quarterly report based on such evaluation; and

 

c)     disclosedin this report any changes in the registrant’s internal control over financialreporting that occurred during the registrant’s most recent fiscal quarter thathas materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, theregistrant’s internal control over financial reporting; and

 

5.     Ihave disclosed, based on my most recent evaluation of internal control overfinancial reporting, to the registrant’s auditors:

 

a)              all significant deficiencies and materialweaknesses in the design or operation of internal controls over financialreporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrant’sability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

 

b)             any fraud, whether or not material, thatinvolves any persons who have a significant role in the registrant’s internalcontrols over financial reporting.

 

In giving the foregoing certifications in paragraphs 4 and 5 above, Ihave relied to the extent I consider reasonable on information provided to meby Eastern American Energy Corporation and Ryder Scott Company, IndependentPetroleum Engineers.

 
|   |   |   |   |   | /s/ Robert  L. Griffin |                              |
|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|------------------------|-----------------------------------|
|   |   |   |   |   |                   |   Vice  President       |
|   |   |   |   |   |                   |   The  Bank of New York |
|        |        |        |        |        |                        |                                   |  |

 

Date:  August 14, 2003

 

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