Consulting

Consulting firm R.J. Rudden Associates Inc. is conducting a survey of local distribution companies (LDCs) to determine the impact on their business of the demise of large marketing companies since the Enron bankruptcy.

Electric deregulation has lost its luster for large retail energy consumers, according to a new survey by RKS Research & Consulting. With California’s energy catastrophe, Enron’s collapse, the weak economy and Sept. 11 weighing heavily on their minds last year, 402 key energy consumers in general lost interest in electric deregulation, North Salem, NY-based RKS said.

New York City-based Caminus Corp., a leading provider of software and strategic consulting services to energy market participants worldwide, announced Tuesday that it has registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed underwritten public offering of 3,370,000 shares of its common stock. Of the total, the company will be offering 1,500,000 shares, with the remaining shares offered by certain selling stockholders. The registration statement also covers an additional 505,500 shares that will be subject to an option granted to the underwriters for over-allotments, if any. The company currently has 17.9 million common shares outstanding. The managing underwriters of the offering are Banc of America Securities LLC, Robertson Stephens and Wachovia Securities. Caminus also said late Tuesday that a number of leading energy utilities, producers, pipelines, gas and power marketers, physical and financial traders, and integrated energy companies have licensed software spanning all of the company’s product lines during the fourth quarter of 2001. Customers included Eni S.p.A., Hess Energy Trading Co. LLC, Nicor Enerchange LLC, RWE Trading Americas Inc., Sequent Energy Management LP. and Prior Energy. In addition, the company said that a lot of existing customers, including American Electric Power Service Corp. and PG&E Gas Transmission Corp., licensed additional software during the fourth quarter.

Investors in oil and natural gas companies shouldn’t be surprised if asset writedowns for 2001 are in the $10 billion neighborhood, according to the John S. Herold, Inc. consulting firm, which already has tracked more than $2 billion in announced asset writedowns and impairments this year.

Investors in oil and natural gas companies shouldn’t be surprised if asset writedowns for 2001 are in the $10 billion neighborhood, according to the John S. Herold, Inc. consulting firm, which already has tracked more than $2 billion in announced asset writedowns and impairments this year.

Top energy regulators and industry officials debated the causes of last year’s record high gas prices in California during a House subcommittee hearing last week that featured a thorough review of the El Paso market manipulation case and all the issues contributing to the serious natural gas market malfunction. FERC Chairman Pat Wood said he does not see a need for legislative action. He believes last year’s high gas prices were the result mainly of multiple supply and demand factors and a mismatch between interstate and California intrastate pipeline capacity, which state LDCs and regulators are in the process of correcting.

The Oil & Gas Asset Clearinghouse, the Houston-based marketing and consulting firm for property acquisitions and divestitures, will hold its 14th hybrid live floor/Internet auction on Wednesday. More than 1,100 oil and gas properties will be combined into 123 lots. The hybrid auction enables Internet bidders to compete real-time against the live auction floor.

BP and Accenture, formerly Andersen Consulting, jointly announced a $175 million expansion of BP’s U.S. refining and marketing energy outsourcing agreement. The companies said Accenture will design, build and run business systems that support the majority of BP’s U.S. downstream back-office business processes.

BP and Accenture, formerly Andersen Consulting, jointly announced on Tuesday a $175 million expansion of BP’s U.S. refining and marketing energy outsourcing agreement. The companies said Accenture will design, build and run business systems that support the majority of BP’s U.S. downstream back-office business processes.