The phrase “if you build it, they will come” sounds too ancientto describe the nascent e-commerce scene. Perhaps it’s moreappropriate to ask, “if everyone builds something, will they knowwhere to go?” The months ahead will see no dearth of online tradingoptions for energy and related properties, products and services asplayers scramble to create new sites or get on board existing ones.Among this week’s happenings:

Just last week (a month ago by e-commerce standards?), sevenU.S. and European financial institutions and diversified energy andnatural resource firms said they would launchIntercontinentalExchange, an Internet-based marketplace to initiallytrade oil, oil products and precious metals, with gas and electricityto come later (see Daily GPI, March22). And do you remember where you were when EnronOnline went livein November (see Daily GPI, Oct. 27)?

Clicking back to the latest news:

PowerSpring bought for $1.15 million in cash, a promissory noteand 12.5% of its stock gas producer and consumer broker-agentDenver-based Mercator, which markets an average of 5 Bcf/month for14 clients. John Harpole, president and sole shareholder ofMercator prior to the acquisition, will be executive vicepresident, chief operating officer and a director of PowerSpring.Korn/Ferry International is handling the search for a chiefexecutive officer.

“The acquisition of Mercator marks another important step inPowerSpring’s transition to a fully operational, stand-alonesubsidiary of Metretek,” said W. Phillip Marcum, Metretek CEO.”Mercator brings with it unsurpassed expertise in all aspects ofthe procurement, transportation and sale of natural gas. Thisexpertise, as well as Mercator’s extensive contacts amongsuppliers, will be an important part of PowerSpring’s mission toopen the world of deregulation to commercial energy users.”

“To date, the vast majority of commercial customers, unlikelarge industrial customers, have not enjoyed the benefits ofderegulation,” Harpole said. “As a result of the merger,PowerSpring – with its ability to aggregate demand through thecreation of virtual cooperatives – will give commercial consumersof natural gas, and later electricity, an opportunity to realizethe substantial cost-savings of a competitive, deregulated energyenvironment.”

Altra’s relationship with each of the three market makersincludes volume commitments from each and is expected todramatically increase volume and liquidity on Altrade, thecompany’s online energy exchange. More than 2,200 traders use thereal-time online trading platform, which is broker-assisted byAmerex and Prebon Energy and allows deals in wholesale gas, power,crude and gas liquids.

Altra, the only company willing and/or able to quote tradevolumes, said total power postings have exceeded 4,300 on a peakday basis since the first of the year. In February, transactionsworth more than $400 million were executed on Altrade Power, a 328%increase in volume since the system’s launch in October. BP Amocois taking a 3% interest in Altra Energy Technologies to grow itsweb trading presence. Altra touts Altrade as a many-to-many modelfor energy exchanges. Altrade gives traders real-time prices fromall buyers and sellers on the system, all of whom remain anonymous.EnronOnline, for instance, offers only itself as a commodityseller.

Red Meteor will offer buying and selling neutrality, multiplecommodity options, personalized customization, breaking industrynews, real-time trading communications, and universal datacompatibility all on a single platform. The intended purchase ofTCT Crude Inc., a major domestic crude oil broker, will giveRedMeteor.com a resource to help traders bridge the transition fromtraditional trading, such as brokered deals, to the Internetmarketplace. Additionally, TCT Crude’s brokers will deliverliquidity to the site.

“We have designed a system that responds to the needs of amarket where energy commodities traders currently must monitor anaverage of four or more screens on their desks to make tradingdecisions, and still trade on the floor in person, by phone or byfacsimile,” said Vincent Di Cosimo, RedMeteor.com CEO. “RedMeteorpresents a new way for traders to approach global energy markets byoffering a personalized, electronic, one-source trading andinformation environment.”

RedMeteor.com maintains competitors are limited by only tradingone or two commodities, by not providing content or real-timeinformation, by charging monthly user fees, or by requiring creditlines. RedMeteor.com offers free access to the 300,000 market andcorporate energy traders in today’s $1 trillion energy tradingmarketplace, charging a small commission on each trade from boththe buyer and the seller.

One of RedMeteor’s technology partners is Ownby Companies, whichhas an exclusive consulting agreement with RedMeteor and is theoriginal designer of Altra Energy Technologies’ Chalkboard system,one of the first online electronic trading systems.

Petroleumplace, which was launched in 1995, targets the upstreamand offers e-commerce, content (through the EnergyGate onlinemagazine), and community services for the worldwide energyindustry. The site contains a directory of nearly 3,000 industryservice providers, a database of nearly 8,000 pieces of usedequipment, more than 1,000 resumes of industry professionals, andlistings for more than $1 billion of proven reserves and producingproperties available for sale or trade.

The company also owns and operates The Oil & Gas AssetClearinghouse and TradeBank Inc. Clearinghouse is a Houston-basedlive oral auctioneer of oil and gas properties. TradeBank is anacquisition and divestiture community for oil and gas property dealinformation, listings, trade opportunities, and networking.Winfield Capital participates in U.S. Small Business Administrationfunding programs.

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