Adding to the list of energy trading companies that have seen a sizeable jump in business since Enron Corp. filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, Sequent Energy Management, the wholesale marketing and supply arm of Atlanta-based AGL Resources Inc., said that its business volumes have risen nearly 300% since the energy giant announced Chapter 11.

In December, Sequent said it is trading a daily average of almost 2 million MMBtus across 13 pipelines and with more than 100 counterparties. This compares to about 500,000 MMBtus moved daily during November.

“These new volumes are being driven by natural gas producers who want to bypass the mega-marketers and build closer relationships with end-users,” said Richard J. Duszynski, CEO of Sequent Energy Management. “It is natural that they come to Sequent because our parent company is a natural gas utility holding company.

“Obviously market dynamics have changed dramatically,” Duszynski said, “and natural gas producers are finding stable utility and commercial customers to be very attractive business partners.”

With the new volume of business, the company it is now able to diversify its regional business activities in order to realize increased revenues and profits from the trading and marketing of producers’ gas across a broad area. Sequent said it also expanding its asset optimization presence throughout multiple states in the Southeast and creating a more liquid market for gas in the region.

Sequent said with the run-up in business, it is already expanding its recently completed trading floor and business offices at 1000 Louisiana Street in Houston. As part of its business, Sequent manages assets for AGL Resources’ utility subsidiaries, including Atlanta Gas Light Co. serving more than 1.5 million residential, commercial and industrial users in Georgia; Virginia Natural Gas with more than 230,000 customers in southeastern Virginia; and Chattanooga Gas Company which provides retail natural gas sales and transportation services to approximately 60,000 customers in Tennessee.

“The recent increase of almost 1.5 MMBtus daily in business activity has come largely from new producers seeking stable, creditworthy counterparties and new relationships with utilities,” said Claude Straub, Sequent’s senior vice president for commercial operations.

Sequent Energy Management is a Houston-based entity focusing on asset management and the wholesale trading, marketing, gathering and transporting of natural gas. Sequent’s goal is to position itself as a dominant niche player in the Southeastern United States natural gas market.

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