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In the first-ever probe of a company’s online trading system or its derivatives trading practices, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has launched a full investigation into Enron Corp.’s commodities activities, centering on whether the former trading giant committed fraud or manipulated markets through improper trading on commodity exchanges. An Enron spokesman said the company would cooperate with the inquiry.

In an online auction scheduled for 11 a.m. CST Monday, Gulf South will accept bids for 5 million dekatherms of Firm Storage Service (FSS) capacity through its web site (www.gulfsouthpl.com, click “Auctions”). The capacity will be available from April 1, 2002 to March 31, 2004. See the bulletin board or call Stacy Franz at (713) 544-5228 for more information.

In the first-ever probe of a company’s online trading system or its derivatives trading practices, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has launched a full investigation into Enron Corp.’s commodities activities, centering on whether the former trading giant committed fraud or manipulated markets through improper trading on commodity exchanges. An Enron spokesman said the company would cooperate with the inquiry.

Summing up its results for 2001, online energy trading company, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), said by the end of 2001 the number of participating firms and users on ICE both increased by more than 400%. In addition, the company said that the number of trades executed on ICE grew 15 fold over that same period during 2000.

The NewPower Co., the national retail energy provider founded by Enron, IBM and America Online in May of last year, said Enron’s bankruptcy has forced it to terminate its supply contracts with the company and take an expected fourth quarter charge of about $110 million. The company, however, said its previous fourth quarter estimate of a loss of 65 cents to 73 cents per share remains on target.

Atlanta, GA-based IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) announced last week that weather derivatives are now available on the ICE online trading system.

Atlanta, GA-based IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) said Tuesday that weather derivatives are now available on the ICE online trading system.

Platts, the energy information arm of the McGraw-Hill Companies, has announced the acquisition of Financial Times (FT) Energy, parent of several energy publications and online data services including Gas Daily and Megawatt Daily, from London-based conglomerate Pearson plc.

Due to the increased natural gas demand in the country sparked by new gas-fired generation coming online, the United States is experiencing the largest wave of pipeline infrastructure expansion since the early 1960’s , according to a recent advisory from Industrial Information Resources Inc. (IIR). The consultant group said it expects 25,000 miles of gas transmission pipeline will be constructed by 2010 and an additional 13,000 miles by 2015, with estimates ranging up to 275,000 miles or more of distribution pipelines.