Enron’s interstate natural gas pipelines soon will beginoffering capacity on EnronOnline, a breakthrough transportationservice that has never been done before. With its TranswesternPipeline leading the way, Enron said last week the pipeline wouldbe the first to offer capacity for bidding through an open seasonon EnronOnline, its electronic transaction platform. Bidding willbegin next week.

“The use of EnronOnline to market interstate transportationcapacity represents a major step forward as our pipelines look fornew ways to use e-commerce to better serve our customers,” saidStan Horton, chairman of Enron Gas Pipeline Group. “This innovativeapproach to marketing pipeline capacity clearly benefits bothinterstate pipelines and customers.”

Initially, Transwestern will offer 20,000 Dthd of firm capacityfor the month of July. An open season conducted through a sealedbid process will begin this Thursday at 8 a.m. CST, and will closeJune 26 at 2 p.m. CST. All bidders will be notified of acceptanceor rejection of their bids by 4 p.m. CST the same day.

The Transwestern system consists of approximately 2,400 miles ofpipeline, with east-west delivery capability of 1.7 Bcf/d.

“By offering capacity services through our online service, weare offering our commodity transportation customers everything theyneed in one place,” said Enron’s Gina Taylor. “It’s just one moreoption to put everything in one place, and to help make everythingeasier.”

Several of Enron’s other pipelines, including Northern NaturalGas, Northern Border Pipeline and Florida Gas Transmission (FGT),also plan to offer interstate services on the e-commerce platformin the “near future,” according to officials.

Two Enron pipelines, Houston Pipe Line and Louisiana ResourcesPipeline pipe have not committed to the interstate capacity servicebut may do so in the future.

Since it was launched, EnronOnline has completed more than140,000 transactions overall, valued at more than $62 billionTaylor said. Enron officials claim that EnronOnline is the world’slargest Internet site, with more than $50 billion in transactionsin less than seven months of service.

©Copyright 2000 Intelligence Press, Inc. All rightsreserved. The preceding news report may not be republished orredistributed in whole or in part without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.