Kicking off 2002 on a strong note, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) posted a notional value of trades done on Jan. 9 on its on-line exchange at more than $4.3 billion. The amount marked a 75% increase over December’s average of approximately $2.5 billion, which was the record month for the year 2001. “While ICE already experienced incredible growth in 2001 with a 15 fold increase in number of trades executed on our platform compared to last year, the start of the New Year is proving again that we have a very strong platform that perfectly fits the demands of the current market,” said Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO of IntercontinentalExchange. “With the recent addition of many new trading participants and the plans we have in store for the addition of OTC clearing to provide credit amelioration that the market desperately desires, we are looking forward to even stronger growth in the new year.”

The American Gas Assoc. will hold meetings Jan. 17 and 29 to help energy industry representatives coordinate activities following the recent formation of the North American Energy Industry Standards Board (NAESB). The meetings will focus on structuring NAESB’s retail gas quadrant and retail electric quadrant. The meetings, scheduled to run all day, will be at AGA’s office at 400 North Capitol Street NW, 4th Floor, Washington D.C. A registration form and further information are available on the AGA website (www.aga.org) under “upcoming events.” Teleconferencing is an option.

FERC Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis L. Wagner, Jr., has called for company direct testimony and exhibits to be presented Jan 25, 2002 in the continued case against El Paso Natural Gas. Answering testimony from intervenors and staff will be Feb. 15, company rebuttal March 8, intervenor/staff rebuttal March 15 and a hearing March 19. “Discovery will start immediately and proceed on a rolling basis,” the judge said in the scheduling order issued last Thursday. In December, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a request by its Office of General Counsel’s Market Oversight and Enforcement Section (MOE) for an expanded investigation into whether El Paso Natural Gas withheld transportation capacity from customers last winter in an attempt to drive up prices for natural gas delivered to the California border. The Commission remanded the long-standing complaint case against El Paso to Wagner to explore the limited issue of whether the pipeline denied IT service to customers from November 2000 through March 2001. During that time gas spot prices rose to the $20 to $30/MMBtu level, with price spikes as high as $60/MMBtu,” the FERC order said (RP00-241). Last October, Wagner issued an initial decision that found El Paso pipeline had rigged the bidding process for capacity on its system to favor its affiliate El Paso Merchant Energy Co., but it vindicated the pipeline and its merchant energy affiliates of allegations of market-power abuses.

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