Communications projects are high on the list of announcementsand pronouncements at a Houston energy conference this week, withcompany executives telling analysts that the Internet, bandwidthand telecommunications may surpass traditional energy earnings inthe next decade.

Enron Corp.’s CEO Ken Lay said the Houston-based energy giantwill sell some European and North American assets to become less”asset intensive,” and free up cash for an expanded broadbandfiber-optic network. The extra cash, totaling between $600 millionand $650 million, would be dropped into Enron’s growing broadbandbusiness, Lay told analysts at the Dain Rauscher Wesselsconference.

Since it was formed in November 1999, Lay said its e-commercesite, Enron Online, which has exceeded all analysts’ expectationsand is driving the move toward bandwidth, has had grosstransactions of $150 billion. The system now is handling about2,000 transactions a day, and 60% of all the company’s businesstakes place through the online system.

Williams Co. already has announced its move to split its energy andcommunications units into separate businesses (see Daily GPI, July 25), and that plan is proceeding aheadof schedule, said Bill Hobbs, president of energy and marketing. Hepredicted the split would occur before the end of the second quarter2001.

“The network is one year ahead of schedule, and by the end of theyear, we will have moved into 50 local markets,” Hobbs said. He alsoannounced that Williams has invested in E-speed, which will be inconjunction with the company’s earlier investment in Houstonstreet.com(see Daily GPI, March 8) as thecompany’s web-based power trading exchanges.

For the company’s expansion into bandwidth, Hobbs said there area “lot of opportunities now residing in the telecommunicationsmarket,” especially from a trading aspect. Saying he wouldn’tclassify Williams as a “trading shop,” Hobbs nonetheless said thatthe company has more access to markets at a significantly lowercost because of its e-business.

“We’re very excited about the investment in the Internetbusinesses,” Hobbs said. That is where our long-term stability is.The best is yet to come in the marketing and trading areas.”

And telecommunications is high on the list at the largestnatural gas pipeline company, El Paso Energy Corp., which announcedyesterday it will invest up to $2 billion in the next few years tobuild a substantial telecommunications business.

Greg Jenkins, who heads up El Paso’s global networks unit, saidmost of the investments will be made in acquisitions of someregional network operators that need to reduce their debt tosurvive.

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