Enrononline

UBS Warburg Energy, which took over the EnronOnline trading platform earlier this year, has issued no public statements since February, when it completed a deal to obtain Enron Corp.’s exclusive license to the technology to operate the North American natural gas and power trading operations, but sources report that between a one-quarter to one-half — 120 to 250 — of its Houston staff are expected to be laid off.

UBS Warburg Energy said it has started energy trading operations and completed a partial reincarnation of EnronOnline — now called UBSWenergy.com. The web site was up and running Monday with financial North American natural gas and power products being offered, and a spokeswoman said physical products will be made available soon, following regulatory approval.

In an effort to step up the competition with brokers and EnronOnline, which some observers expect to suffer from Enron’s financial woes, the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) started offering exchange of futures for swap (EFS) transactions last week as a first step in its plans to offer clearing services to the over-the-counter (OTC) natural gas market. In the first full day of EFS demand, 11,100 contracts changed hands and the exchange promptly lowered its fee for the deals to $2.50 per side from $10.

The struggle experienced by some electronic trading systems in the face of stiff competition from IntercontinentalExchange, EnronOnline, TradeSpark and other systems isn’t stopping E-lecTrade from launching its own power trading system this summer. The system is unique, however, in its effort to provide multiple structured power transaction types and risk management services real time and on an anonymous basis.

Houston-based Dynegy Inc., setting itself up as likely competition for current online trading king EnronOnline, has launched Dynegydirect, its own B2B trading site for energy and communications commodities. The new system will give its customers self-service access to bid and offer prices across U.S. power, natural gas and natural gas liquids products.