European

European financial heavyweight Fortis muscled into North America’s energy marketing business on Tuesday with the estimated $415 million purchase of Duke Energy’s commercial marketing and trading business. Fortis, which ranks among the 20 largest financial institutions in Europe, will pay Duke $210 million for the business and agreed to pay an amount equal to the value of Duke’s portfolio of contracts and net working capital associated with the business when the transaction closes.

Making its third purchase of some of Enron Corp.’s European metals trading businesses, Sempra Energy’s Stamford, CT-based trading arm Tuesday shelled out another $24 million in cash to acquire Liverpool (UK)-based Henry Bath Ltd and subsidiaries, a provider of warehousing services for non-ferrous metals in Europe and Asia.

A mild European winter with accompanying low heating oil priceswas the saving grace for U.S. industrials that took advantage ofthe flood of heating oil imports to switch off high-priced naturalgas. Revised estimates by Raymond James Associates show industrialsswitching at 5 Bcf/d during the coldest part of the winter, ratherthan the 3 Bcf/d originally estimated.

IntercontinentalExchange, founded earlier this year by leadingU.S. and European financial institutions and energy and naturalresource firms, has chosen IXnet, a Global Crossing, Ltd. company,to fully manage its global transaction network. IXnet is thedeveloper of an intelligent, high-performance global Extranetdesigned principally for the financial services community.IntercontinentalExchange is scheduled to begin trading preciousmetals in August, with OTC energy products, including natural gas,slated for Q4. The exchange’s partners include American ElectricPower, Aquila Energy, BP Amoco, Deutsche Bank AG, Duke Energy, ElPaso Energy, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, ReliantEnergy, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, SG Investment Banking, SouthernCompany Energy Marketing, Totalfina Elf, and Continental PowerExchange