Enron Mail

From:mike.mcconnell@enron.com
To:vvv@economist.com
Subject:coal follow-up
Cc:
Bcc:
Date:Thu, 31 May 2001 11:36:00 -0700 (PDT)

Vijay,

I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. I've been traveling again=
. =20
I also just found this in my in-box as returned as un-delivered (I put only=
=20
two v(s) instead of three. I hope your other discussions went well that=
=20
day. =20

Below are a few comments that i believe you addressed and wanted some=20
additional feedback from our coal activities and changes in the coal=20
industry. I wanted to get this out to you quickly so please forgive this=
=20
lack of formality or writing creativity.

Enron activity (EOL)
Enron's online activity has been very successful especially as compared wit=
h=20
our early estimations of acceptance by the industry. I believe that there =
is=20
only one other active coal trading system (Dynegy direct) that simply isn't=
=20
posting prices as a bulletin board and waiting for a response with telephon=
e=20
follow-up. I also believe that we have done a very significant amount of o=
r=20
maybe all the coal transactions on Dynegy direct to date. We do a lot of o=
ur=20
business online and the numbers YTD are that approx. 45% of our trades are=
=20
executed online. That number has been higher, as much as 90% for certain=
=20
months or when we are trying something new or moving a particular product. =
=20
Also, as Bid/Ask spreads tighten, which we would expect, that bodes well fo=
r=20
EOL and our (and the markets) ability to transact even more quickly. =20
Transactions that took days to put together now can be done in 1 second. =
=20
Between the speed and the cost savings of having a fully integrated system,=
=20
we believe that our transaction numbers and percentages of online business=
=20
will significantly increase.

Changes in the industry
We discussed changes that we believe are coming in the industry. We see=20
several things on the horizon. We expect the acceptance of the online=20
transactions to further increase; especially with the volatile price=20
movements what we have seen in the last 6 months. We are currently=20
developing several new products for EOL that I believe will become very=20
popular and will create new markets in coal and related sectors. I don't=
=20
want to discuss them right now but we are close to releasing them and I thi=
nk=20
they will raise some eyebrows. The development of the Global Coal exchan=
ge=20
will also help. I frankly don=01,t believe it will be very successful beca=
use=20
of several things but primarily because of the difficulty in closing the=20
transaction. One thing has been very firmly demonstrated. Every time a new=
=20
big system has been introduced EOL volumes go up. It simply accelerates th=
e=20
acceptance of online business and it gets down to the best prices and=20
liquidity to see who will ultimately win the day. Another big change in th=
e=20
industry is the growing acceptance of the OTC market. The significant pric=
e=20
changes that have occurred have "forced" many traditional players to the OT=
C=20
market. This also includes forcing them to agree to standard OTC terms and=
=20
conditions and getting them comfortable with the market. This is very good=
=20
for Enron especially when you consider that we are the major player on the=
=20
OTC market. We don't release specific percentages of what we are doing on=
=20
the OTC. Also having more natural and traditional players signing these=20
types of standard agreements helps us on the EOL side because standard=20
contracts are important for developing a more liquid commodity market.

Enron coal volumes
A couple of numbers that we are willing to release. Year to date, we have=
=20
made markets and transacted approx. 30 million tons in the forward market. =
=20
On the physical side of our transactions, about 25% go physical vs.=20
financial. Last year Enron was the largest US market maker (not producer)=
=20
with 142 million tons transacted. Internationally we moved approx. 47=20
million tons and overall the total was slightly less than 190 million tons.=
=20
We have high expectations for 2001. I believe that we should be up approx=
=20
65% and we are on track with that. I think the industry would be surprise=
d=20
that we did almost 2,800 transactions in 2000. This doesn=01,t include an=
y of=20
our shipping business.

I hope this helps and please let me know if you have any other questions.

Mike