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Enron Mail |
USA: ICE says 150 mln bbls oil traded in first month.
NEW YORK - The IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) said Friday it had traded 150 million barrels of crude and refined products since the October 12 launch of its web-based energy trading platform. It marks a 110 million barrel rise in cumulative oil volumes since October 26 for the online venture, backed by some of the world's biggest energy firms and offering derivative contracts outside regulated exchanges for energy and metals. ICE said it traded more than 2 million megawatt hours of power on Thursday, its highest yet. The site has traded a total 800 million mmBTUs (million British Thermal Units) of natural gas and natural gas derivatives, and 22 million megawatt-hours of firm power as of close of trading November 16. ICE has also traded a total of 15 million gold and gold equivalent ounces since precious metals contracts were launched on August 24, the company said in a statement. Some 85 of the world's largest energy and financial commodity firms are participating in its contracts, it added. The total notional value for all OTC products traded to date on ICE is over $13 billion. Original partners in the Atlanta-based exchange are BP Amoco Plc , Royal/Dutch Shell , TotalFina , Goldman Sachs , Societe Generale ,Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Deutsche Bank . In July, six further gas and power partners were recruited - American Electric Power , Utilicorp's Aquila Energy , Duke Energy , El Paso Energy , Reliant Energy and Southern Company Energy Marketing . There are currently at least 16 other energy trading Web sites on the Internet, but traders have said that with the backing of seven major banks and oil companies, ICE could provide the stiffest challenge yet to traditional ways of doing business. ____________________________________________________________ CheMatch.com has layoffs, expects new financing Nov 20, 2000 08:57 AM ET HOUSTON, Nov. 20 -- CheMatch.com Inc., an Internet marketplace for buying and selling bulk commodity chemicals, plastics and fuel products, has completed a restructuring that involved layoffs, and it expects to secure additional funding by the end of the year. "We did have a restructuring and a handful of layoffs," Clay Jeansonne, CheMatch.com spokesman confirmed to LocalBusiness.com late Friday. "The company reviews its structure periodically." CheMatch.com was started in 1998 and has posted six consecutive quarters of growth. At one point, the company had 93 employees, and it currently has 85 employees, Jeansonne said. Jeansonne said the company expects to bring in new funding from venture capital companies and from technology companies. He declined to elaborate on the possible amount of funding. "We do expect to get some additional funding by the end of the year," he said. Already the company's strategic and financial investors include Battery Ventures, Bayer AG (NYSE: BAYZY), Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE: CSC; Dupont (NYSE: DD), GE (NYSE: GE)and Millennium Chemicals (NYSE: MCH). October IPO postponed The possibility of raising more money privately was part of the reason that CheMatch.com withdrew its initial public offering on Oct. 6. "We had nibbles out there so we postponed the IPO," Jeansonne told LocalBusiness.com. Market conditions also were cited as the reason in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. CheMatch.com had filed for the IPO on March 1, and in April had set the price at $10 to $12 a share and the number of shares at 5 million. It had requested to be traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol "CHEM" but had made no move to actually start selling stock. CheMatch.com's competitors include ChemCross of Houston and ChemConnect of San Francisco. ChemConnect had filed for an IPO in the spring but withdrew the offering during the summer, saying it would wait until the IPO market improves. Partnerships continue In mid-September, CheMatch.com and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced a joint agreement to develop a co-branded complex of certain petrochemical futures and options products to trade on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's GLOBEX2 electronic trading system. This marked the first joint development project between the futures exchange and a business-to-business marketplace to create risk management products for a specific industry, a news release at the time said. In late September, CheMatch.com announced a total of more than 1 million metric tons of product had been traded on its network, representing some $350 million worth of transactions. The average transaction value is worth more than $500,000. Third-quarter 2000 trading reflected completed transactions from more than 70 member companies. The physical product offering has grown from eight products at this time last year to 63 products currently. ______________________________________________________ PwC to launch online CO2 exchange PricewaterhouseCoopers is poised to launch a major online marketplace for trading in greenhouse gas emissions. PwC, which has formed CO2e.com in partnership with the Cantor Fitzgerald, is expected to announce the portal tomorrow at the climate change conference in The Hague. Trading in emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) is expected to play a key role in global efforts to combat global warming and climate change by reducing emissions overall. There is fierce debate as to whether countries which cannot meet their emission targets under international protocols, or do not wish to, should be able to buy emission "credits" from countries which can. In future individual companies may also have "permits" to emit greenhouse gases which they could trade like any other commodity. According to Steve Drummond, PwC's global head of Climate Change Financial Advisory Services, trading in greenhouse gases may become one of the fastest growing commodity markets in the world. Trading in emissions has been the subject of heated discussion since the 1997 Kyoto meeting on climate change. CO2e.com hopes to exploit the fact that, under the Kyoto protocol, which has yet to be signed off, trading in emission reductions may be banked now by companies and used against emissions obligations which may be set by law in the future. "The emission reductions now can be offset against those which can be made in the future. The risk could be that the protocol will not be signed, but this really started at the Rio summit in 1992 and everything is on track so far," Drummond said. "There is huge momentum behind this." Drummond said CO2e.com will act not just as an online marketplace but as a single point of entry for corporations which need to understand and cope with their duties in terms of climate change. The aim of the portal is to help companies establish what their position is and what they need to do now or in future. The site will also refer clients to consultants with a good track record in environmental and emissions issues. Drummond said there are already sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide "emission reduction" markets in the US which have proved successful. "Everyone anticipates that this market will be huge. People want to figure out what the issues are. When the legislation and the various regimes are established, reductions in emissions will have a real value," he said. Fred Krupp of Environmental Defence, one of the leading environmental organisations in the US, said: "It is encouraging to see the emergence of carbon commerce entrepreneurs like CO2e.com who can build both the pathways and the incentive for market-based solutions to global warming." ______________________________________________________- o Oil & Gas ASP GeoNetServices.com Gets Round Two Funding HOUSTON -- GeoNetServices.com, an application service provider for the oil and gas industry, said it received an undisclosed amount of second round funding from ISIS, a French technological holding company specialized in the oil and gas industry. Charles Prevot, chief executive officer at Isis, will join the company's board of directors. The company will use the funds to build its infrastructure and as working capital. The company has received $1 million in funding from East River Ventures. http://www.geonetservices.com/ _____________________________________________ o 3i Invests $9.9 Million in Battery Developer Ion Energy LONDON -- 3i, a European venture capital firm, said it invested $9.9 million in battery developer Ion Energy Research. Ion Energy develops lithium polymer batteries for powering mobile telephones and handheld devices. The investment from 3i will enable Ion Energy Research to commission new production lines for production capabilities in excess of 500,000 cells a month at a new production facility in Bologna, Italy. Ion Energy telephone +44-207-300-6406. http://www.3i.com/ _____________________________________________ o Workflow App Firm Pivotry Raises $1 Million Seed Round RESTON, Va. -- Pivotry, which makes a workflow management application, said it has raised over $1 million in a seed round from individuals including Bruce Handricks, a shareholder in idealab!; Rob Draughon, executive vice president of new business development for WebMD; and Aileen Pugh, former CFO of Telebanc, which was recently acquired by E*Trade. These three investors will sit on Pivotry's board of directors. The company said it will use the funds to develop the first version of its product and to attract initial clients. http://www.pivotry.com/ _____________________________________________ o European Firm Net Partners Closes $161.4 Million Fund BRUSSELS -- Net Partners, a European venture capital firm that invests in Internet startups, said it closed a new fund at EUR 190 million ($161.4 million). The new fund, which was incorporated as a Belgian company, Nestor 2000, was raised from U.S. and European investors. The fund will make investments through Net Partners' offices in Brussels, London, and Milan. The company will focus its investment strategies on companies in the online finance, support services, and wireless segments of the marketplace. Net Partners said the fund will make investments in 15-20 new companies. http://www.net-partners.com/ ____________________________________________ o B2B Platform for African Market Gets $300,000 Seed Round NEW YORK -- Afridaq, which is creating a business-to-business information and transactional platform to target Africa's financial markets, said it raised $300,000 in seed capital from individual investors. Afridaq said it will use the funds for Web site prototype development, team building, and general corporate purposes. http://www.afridaq.com/ _____________________________________________ o Broadband Firm SwitchPoint Lands $20 Million Series B OREM, Utah -- SwitchPoint Networks, formerly AirSwitch, a provider of broadband residential and business networking services, said it completed a $20 million Series B round of financing. Previous investor Omninet Capital led the round with additional funding from Synapse Capital, Chase Mittel Capital Fund II, Private Equity Partners, and Richmond I. The company is also backed by AirSwitch Partners and individual investors. Neil Kadisha, CEO of Omninet Capital, also serves as Switchpoint's chairman of the board. The company will use the funding to accelerate its deployment of peer-to-peer, Ethernet-based technologies into metropolitan markets in the U.S. and abroad. http://www.switchpointnetworks.com/ _____________________________________________ o Mobile Web App Firm iMedeon Gets $15.5 Million Round Two ALPHARETTA, Ga. -- iMedeon, a provider of wireless Web applications for mobile workforce management, said it raised $15.5 million in its second round. Investors include GE Equity, GE Power Systems, Aether, Enron, and previous investor Insight Capital Partners. Warren Ferguson, president of GE Smallworld, will join the company's board of directors. The company will use the funds to expand its marketing and sales, product development, international initiatives, and to expand its management team. http://www.imedeon.com/ _____________________________________________ o Net Infrastructure Firm Zama Secures $17.4 Million Round Two SEATTLE -- Zama Networks, which develops Internet infrastructure and IP backbone technologies, said it raised $17.4 million in its second round of funding led by Convergent Investors. Japan-based Mobile Internet Capital and Mitsui & Company also participated in the round. Zama said it will use the funds to support the company's data center needs and the initial deployment phase of its new network. The company also announced it has appointed Dennis Okamoto, the former treasurer, controller and vice president for strategic business planning at USWest Communications, as the company's new chief executive officer. http://www.zama.net/ _____________________________________________ o Network Services Firm Onsite Access Pulls IPO NEW YORK -- Onsite Access, a provider of fiber/xDSL-based network access to multi-tenant properties, pulled its IPO. The company cited current market conditions for the withdrawal in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Onsite Access is backed by investors including AT&T Ventures, Crosspoint Venture Partners, Frontline Capital Group, JP Morgan Capital, Microsoft, Spectrum Equity Investors, and Veritech Ventures. http://www.onsiteaccess.com/
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