Sempra Energy Trading, formerly AIG Trading Corp, said itopened a satellite trading floor in San Diego to take advantage ofCalifornia’s deregulated market for electricity. The company’s WestCoast operation will initially have 19 employees. They willinterface with power scheduling operations of California’sIndependent System Operator (ISO) and work with Sempra’s East Coastoperations. Sempra is based in Greenwich, CT.

In other Sempra news, PaineWebber’s natural gas group loweredits 1998 first quarter earnings per share estimates for PacificEnterprises to 50 cents from 54 cents, mainly due to trading lossesincurred by Sempra, the unregulated gas and power marketing unit ofPacific Enterprises and Enova Corp. Sempra earnings originally wereexpected to be break-even to slightly positive but now a loss ofabout $2 million, or 2 cents/share, is expected due to lower pricevolatility in energy commodities, particularly natural gas,PaineWebber said.

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