It’s about time everyone realized Coral Energy is a Shellaffiliate. The company initiated a corporate identity and brandingprogram yesterday supported by direct mail, Web-basedcommunications and advertisements in the Wall Street Journal, theHouston Chronicle and some trade magazines. It also has adopted anew logo design to signify its expanded commercial business andtransition from a joint venture company to a 100% affiliate ofShell’s global natural gas and power business. The logo nowincludes the Shell logo and says Coral is an affiliate of Shell.

“Coral is starting the new millennium as a new company, alignedwith Shell’s global gas and power business and fully equipped togive our customers an edge in the converging natural gas and powermarkets,” said Coral CEO Charles R. Crisp.

Since its formation in 1995 as a joint venture of Shell andTejas Gas, Coral has tripled its gas marketing volumes, grown intoa top-20 power marketer, and expanded into a full line of energyservices. Shell purchased Tejas in 1998 and recently completed itsconsolidation into Coral. The company ranked fourth in physical gassales last year, with volumes totaling 9.8 Bcf/d, which was anincrease of 1.7 Bcf/d from the year prior (see Daily GPI’s marketerrankings this issue).

“When Coral was formed we didn’t have any power; we wereprimarily a gas trader. But now with energy services, Coral SiteAdvantage, greater power marketing and generation, and agreementswith power producers and cooperatives, we are a much differentcompany than we were a few years ago,” said spokesman Jimmy Fox.”We needed a more workable brand. Changing the logo was one way tomore closely align us with Shell. We removed all other images. Theonly image in addition to the words is now the Shell logo itself.

“Wherever you see the words Coral Energy you will see a linethat says ‘an affiliate of Shell.’ The type face is the same thatShell uses. It’s more subtle, but it’s a representation of change,a means of putting a new face to the market.” Fox would not say howmuch the company spent on the branding campaign. “We did a lot ofit internally. We are doing some advertising now which we haven’tdone before. We are working with Bates worldwide advertising onsome of that.”

He said the campaign also coincides with a strategic transitionfor the company. Coral is somewhat unique among the major powermarketers in that it has not emphasized the asset leveragingstrategy, but Fox said that its changing. Coral’s strategy goingforward will involve more “trading around some assets, whether itbe through alliances, joint interests or through greenfields orother projects undertaken by InterGen (a Shell and Bechtel powergeneration partnership formed last year).” Coral currently hasinterests in three power plants: two that it’s building withSkyGen, including one in Pine Bluff, AR, and another in Mobile, AL,and one 800 MW plant in East Texas that it’s building with Tenaska.However, Fox said to expect more power plants to be announced bythe company in the near future.

Coral also announced key moves in its commercial businesssegment yesterday, including the appointment of several new leadersin its trading and marketing organizations. Jim Whalen, the formerhead of its trading and marketing division, retired, triggering thetransition. Debbie S. Wernet has been named president of NorthAmerican Trading, responsible for all commodity and financialtrading activities, including Coral’s moves into E-commerce. Wernetjoined Coral in 1996. Curtis R. Frasier has been named president ofenergy services, responsible for all marketing origination, energymanagement and commercial onshore natural gas pipeline activities.Frasier joined Coral in 1998. Wernet and Frasier report to Crisp,Coral’s president and CEO.

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