El Paso to resume price reporting by May 1

El Paso to resume price reporting by May 1; EKT hopes to follow

Washington (Platts)--29Mar2004


El Paso Merchant Energy LP has told the US Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission that it plans to resume reporting energy prices to index publishers
no later than May 1, while another major marketer, Entergy-Koch Trading (EKT),
said it plans to do the same once it completes a number of actions, including
the development of a new trade-capture system. In response to an early March
FERC staff equest for comments on the current state of gas and electricity
price formation, El Paso said it is "in the final stages of implementing and
testing procedures for price reporting" that comply with the agency's earlier
policy statement and said it believes "transparency of information contained
in price indicies seems to have improved." The company added that "price index
developers with whom we have been coordinating our resumption of price
reporting appear to be tightening and streamlining their processes and
controls."

EKT similarly said it believes "there has been a noticeable improvement in
price transparency over the last four to five months" and said it has "more
confidence in price indices today that before the issuance of the policy
statement." EKT added that "in an effort to resume price reporting," it is
"engaging in a number of activities, including the develoment of a new trade
capture system, the initiation of discussions with index developers regarding
their methodologies and systems, and participation in industry groups to
better ensure uniformity, consistency and certainty in the process and to
promote voluntary industry-wide reporting."

This story was first published in Platts real-time news and market reporting
service Platts Natural Gas Alert (http://www.platts.com/Natural Gas/Real-Time
Information/Natural Gas Alert/).