As part of its continuing investigation into the manipulation of western energy markets, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week sent out data requests to the top natural gas marketers based on their 2001 physical sales volumes, seeking information related to gas prices submitted to energy trade newsletters that publish gas price indexes.

Late Monday, Duke Energy and American Electric Power (AEP) were the only gas marketers to confirm they received a “broad request” from the agency for pricing information in connection with the eight-month probe into the trading and pricing practices of the energy industry. The requests came in the nature of form letters that were addressed to the “Largest North American Gas Markets As Measured by 2001 Physical Sales Volumes,” spokesmen for Duke Energy and AEP said.

Based on NGI’s ranking for 2001, the top North American gas marketers were Mirant, BP, Duke Energy, Reliant Energy, Aquila, Dynegy, American Electric Power (AEP), Coral Energy, El Paso, Sempra Energy, Conoco, Entergy-Koch Trading, Williams, Cook Inlet, PanCanadian, ExxonMobil, Dominion Energy, Anadarko Petroleum, TXU and Occidental Petroleum.

A spokesman for Williams said the company had not received a data request because it had previously had agreed to work with the Commission on the pricing issue. Houston-based Dynegy Inc. was unable to confirm whether it got a data request, but a spokesman noted the company “has been working with the FERC on this issue” already.

Duke Energy intends to “fully respond to the request in short order,” said spokesman Peter Sheffield, but he declined to provide any details about the type of questions being posed by the Commission staff. A source at FERC, which in the past has been open about its data requests, refused to give any information on Monday.

Duke Energy noted it began an internal review in September of its historical prices submitted to newsletter indexes after AEP disclosed that employees had given false prices about gas trades to publications. Since then, two other companies — Dynegy and Williams — have conceded that employees submitted bad prices to gas newsletters as well.

The Charlotte, NC-based company said it has briefly suspended reporting of pricing data “until steps to formalize its processes were put in place.” Other companies have taken similar action in the wake of the disclosures. Duke Energy said it now will require that all prices provided to newsletters be “validated and conveyed by risk management staff reporting to the company’s chief risk officer.”

In addition to FERC, Duke Energy and a number of other energy traders are the target of similar investigations being carried out by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice.

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