Sequent Energy Management, AGL Resources’ wholesale marketing and supply arm, is not being shy about benefiting from Enron’s demise. The company announced that it has experienced rapid growth in wholesale volumes since Enron entered a downward spiral last fall, including a 300% increase in daily gas volumes in December and another 25% jump in January to 2.5 Bcf/d.

Sequent reported an increase in gas transactions from 2,000 in December to nearly 4,200 in January, involving 15 pipelines and more than 120 counterparties. The growth puts it among the top 30 largest gas marketers in North America.

As a result of its rapidly expanding business, Sequent plans to expand floor space and infrastructure at its headquarters operations in Houston. The infrastructure expansion includes hiring additional staff, a 3,000-square-foot increase in space, and related information technology extensions.

“Obviously, when we opened our Houston trading operations last July, we thought we had plenty of capacity,” said Richard J. Duszynski, Sequent’s CEO. “However, we have grown beyond our most optimistic expectations, especially as counterparties looked for new and trusted business partners in the wake of the Enron situation.

“One major reason behind our growth is that we have been extremely successful in attracting aggressive, connected and smart energy professionals to our new company,” Duszynski added. Another reason is the “flight to quality” as producers sought stable, creditworthy counterparties and new relationships with experienced and long-standing utilities. Sequent is the affiliate of Atlanta Gas Light, Virginia Natural Gas and Chattanooga Gas Co. and manages assets for the utilities and other third parties. The company was created by AGL Resources in March 2001 and opened its Houston trading floor in July. It focuses on asset management and the wholesale trading, marketing, gathering and transporting of natural gas primarily in the southeastern United States natural gas market.

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