Message-ID: <21388656.1075858588537.JavaMail.evans@thyme> Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 13:22:55 -0700 (PDT) From: lisa.yoho@enron.com To: legal <.taylor@enron.com> Subject: How is this different? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-From: Yoho, Lisa X-To: Taylor, Mark E (Legal) X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \MTAYLO1 (Non-Privileged)\Taylor, Mark E (Legal)\Archive\2001/08 X-Origin: Taylor-M X-FileName: MTAYLO1 (Non-Privileged).pst Global-Energy: ICE to Offer Clearing for Oil, NatGas=20 Online commodities trading market IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) announced = on 29 August that the London Clearing House (LCH) would provide clearing se= rvices for over-the-counter transactions of WTI crude and Henry Hub natural= gas once the Commodity Futures Trading Commission grants regulatory approv= al, which is not expected before October. LCH was the clearing house for I= nternational Petroleum Exchange (IPE), which ICE recently bought. Jeff Spr= echer, ICE Chief Executive, said the clearing services could "open up new t= rading opportunities, increase the velocity of trading, and increase compan= ies' ability to take on new risk," according to Reuters. A broker told Dow= Jones that the move by ICE was "the 'shot fired across the bow' of its lar= ger-volume competitor NYMEX...[and] will allow ICE and IPE to compete direc= tly with NYMEX for Brent-WTI arbitrage business," as NYMEX will begin offer= ing Brent crude contracts on 5 September. NYMEX also intends to launch its= online trading system, eNYMEX, within four to eight months. ANALYSIS: Any trading market lives or dies on the quality of = its clearance processes. ICE, as one of the largest electronic trading for= ums, is under constant pressure to offer new services, as it attempts to pu= ll potential traders from other online ventures and traditional floor excha= nges. CEO Sprecher said ICE's goal was to "plug into (the already existing= futures market) infrastructure and develop a new paradigm for the OTC mark= ets on some way of clearing, settling or netting," according to Platts. NYMEX's electronic trading efforts are consistently delayed.