Businesses Form Online Marketplace For Energy Industry

A group of financial and energy companies today disclosed plans to launch a new online business-to-business exchange that will trade energy, metal, and other over-the-counter commodity products.

The IntercontinentalExchange will begin trading petroleum and precious-metals products by the end of this year, according to the companies involved. The online marketplace will later expand the variety of items traded to include natural gas, electrical power, and base metals.

Participation in the exchange will be open to all commercial market companies, and there will be no fees beyond those associated with actual trading. The trading system for the exchange, developed by Continental Power Exchange, supports around-the-clock global trading of over-the-counter products, provides management capabilities, and provides an overview of market volumes.

The seven founding firms are BP Amoco, Deutsche Bank AG, the Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, SG Investment Banking, and the Totalfina Elf Group. They will each use the exchange for their own trading for a minimum of one year, to assure that market volume levels are adequate and don't adversely effect commodity prices.

Headquartered in Atlanta, the new venture will be led by Jeffrey Sprecher, former president and CEO of Continental Power Exchange.