From today's NGI

---------------------- Forwarded by Greg Whalley/HOU/ECT on 09/13/2000 09:28
AM ---------------------------

Andy Zipper@ENRON
09/13/2000 09:24 AM
To: Greg Whalley/HOU/ECT@ECT
cc:
Subject: From today's NGI

I think we should discuss our response to this.
---------------------- Forwarded by Andy Zipper/Corp/Enron on 09/13/2000
09:16 AM ---------------------------
From: Bob Shults@ECT on 09/13/2000 09:03 AM
To: Andy Zipper/Corp/Enron@Enron, Louise Kitchen
cc:

Subject: From today's NGI

FYI
---------------------- Forwarded by Bob Shults/HOU/ECT on 09/13/2000 08:57 AM
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From: Rahil Jafry
09/13/2000 08:57 AM

To: Bob Shults/HOU/ECT@ECT, Daniel Diamond/HOU/ECT@ECT
cc:
Subject: From today's NGI

EnronOnline Market Power Under Fire

The simmering pot of market concerns regarding the market power of
EnronOnline finally boiled over in public yesterday at Chicago's LDC Forum. A
representative from EnronOnline had to fend off verbal attacks from
competitors and from the audience, who criticized the system as giving Enron
the ability to manipulate prices and provide it with an unfair advantage over
competitors.

Scott Coleman, an official at Altra Energy Technologies, said proprietary
systems like EnronOnline, and systems being developed by a consortium of
large market players, represent a danger to the health of the energy industry
because of their current or potential market power. Altrade operates its own
independent online exchange that is one of Enron's biggest electronic
competitors. It differs from EnonOnline in that various buyers and sellers
trade with each other with Altrade serving to clear the transactions. On
EnronOnline, Enron posts bid and asked prices and is a party in every
transaction.

The proprietary EnronOnline trading system has been accused of market
manipulation mainly because of its tremendous growth since going live last
November and because of the market strength of its operator, Enron Corp.

Enron is the energy industry's largest marketer/trader/risk manager and one
of the largest natural gas pipeline operators. About 60% of its marketing and
trading business today is done over the EnronOnline system. Critics charged
that EnronOnline provides a tremendous advantage to its parent because all of
the transaction data is thrown into a historical database that is available
only to Enron.

EnronOnline has handled more than 280,000 transactions worth $140 billion
since going live. The proprietary system handles about 2,000 transactions
every day with a value estimated at $1 billion, and most of its online
business is natural gas and power sales and purchases.

Why has the system been so successful? It's free, easy to use, low risk and
there is a tight bid-ask spread, both EnronOnline and its competitors note.
There's no special hardware required; everything is on the web and a
transaction is as simple as a couple clicks of the mouse. It also provides a
broad variety of information, including prices on 1,000 products, and is
supported by the largest energy marketing firm. Although there are many other
systems out there, few if any have the content, ease of use and price
discovery of EnronOnline.

Critics claimed that power enables EnronOnline to "soak up liquidity" in the
marketplace, and in doing so give itself a tremendous advantage over its
competitors. With each trade, Enron gains a little bit more information about
its competitors' positions in the market.

"Over the long term I think the market will always correct itself," said
Altra's Coleman. "But in the short term, I think if any one player has enough
of a presence in any one market they can cause prices to move in one
direction or another."

EnronOnline Director Bob Shults said the company is simply "providing a
service for our customers, particularly a bid and ask. But I don't think
Enron has the ability to move markets. We are just putting a bid and ask out
there, and if people want to buy at our prices, then fine. If people want to
sell at our prices, fine then sell it. I don't think we have the market
manipulation capability people suspect... We are not bigger than the
marketplace."

When asked specifically about historical data collected on those who use the
system, Shults denied the company studies the buying and selling patterns of
its competitors with an eye toward manipulation --- sort of the "Big Brother"
of the energy marketplace.

"The historical information is not available," EnronOnline's Shults admitted.
"We just started calculating the indices and price reports... We are now
providing that information to the market so everyone else has that
information as well." He said Enron does not retain information about those
who use its system.

Shults did, however, warn that the system will make the U.S. energy market
much more closely connected to the global marketplace in the future. With
increasing demand for LNG imports and rapid price discovery of worldwide
commodities on EnronOnline, for example, market activity in Africa and the
Far East could have a more immediate impact on domestic markets.

Quoting analysis conducted by Forester Research Inc., Shults also predicted
electronic exchange revenues could grow from $500 billion this year to more
than $3 trillion in 2004-2005.

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