Energy News Central Blog

UtiliPoint Europe's recent reports...

Benchmarking of European CIS/Billing Software Markets - 4/8/2008

This important UtiliPoint study looks at European CIS/Billing software markets. It includes the results of a survey of software users that reviewed what software was used, what European buyers look for in CIS/Billing software and which vendors are best known and most widely used – among other valuable data. It also includes a comprehensive review of most European countries (Nordic, Iberian, Central and Eastern Europe) and UtiliPoint’s ranking of each country’s retail markets based on several criteria devised specifically for the study (note: countries with mature retail markets were NOT reviewed including the United Kingdom, Ireland and Netherlands). This study will be an important starting point for any firm looking at European retail markets and CIS/Billing software requirements.

$1,495.00

To purchase: http://www.utilipoint.com/rci/details.asp?ProductID=1166

Results of Snapshot Survey on Energy & Natural Resources Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) - 4/21/2008

Well, if you are here is the definitive probate attorney directory. This is a pre-screened directory and also provides a host of useful related information. It's easy to use, start by entering your state at the site and go from there. The site will also help you find a probate real estate agent too if there is property to sell.

USA-Probate.com is a free resource for probate information and resources. You can even go there and get a probate cash advance! They have pretty much thought of everything you might need and set up the site so its easy to use and easy to find the information that you are seeking.

Frankly, I was confused as to what probate meant and so I visited the FAQ section and learned a lot about not just what it is but how it works and what the issues might be... It's a very useful resource on the Internet...

Planning a wedding or a party? Live in the San Diego area? You might need a DJ and there isn't anywhere better to get one than San Diego DJ.

Your san diego wedding dj can do a whole lot more than spin a few records too. They can help you with sound systems, wedding planning, lighting and even music videos... They have 10-years of experience in doing this and over those years, have accumulated over 60,000 songs in every music genre.

To find out a bit more about them and see their price list, just drop by their website and perhaps visit their blog from time to time.... Frankly, their FAQ section is a must read in planning any event since it discusses issues I would never have even thought of including insurance issues and dress code!

and do you like a certain kind of music or want to hear a particular song or artist at your event? Well, their site has that covered too. Visit their song list and even listen to your favorite songs while browsing their website...

As crude oil prices have rocketed dragging up the cost of everything including gasoline, there have been many complaints but no real evidence of a consumer demand eduction in the US - until now!

Mastercard Advisors reports that gasoline sales are down 1% over last year and motorists pumped an average of 9.091 million barrels per day in the week that ended May 9th. That was down 7 percent from the year-ago level. Meanwhile weekly gasoline demand dipped 0.6 percent from the previous week.

Meanwhile the API has announced similar figures. Deliveries of gasoline, a gauge of demand at the pump, fell 1.9% in April from the same month a year ago, the American Petroleum Institute said in a monthly report. It was the biggest decline since December 2000. Gasoline demand was down 0.7% in the first four months of the year compared with the same period in 2005, it said.

But.... are US drivers already adjusting their budgets for higher priced gasoline? The Energy Information Administration reported that the four-week average gasoline demand was up 0.2% last week from the same period a year ago, after falling the previous week.

Since my days of running my own PR and Marketing Consultancy, VasMark Group, Inc., I have valued market surveys as a marketing tactic. VasMark was acquired by UtiliPoint of course and was transformed into the Trading & Risk Management practice now headed by Patrick Reames. But surveys I still believe in.

Market surveys, if properly set up, can provide a wealth of information for your firm. A survey can actually generate sales leads, improve our brand awareness, help you gain knowledge about the competition, the market and buying criteria. They are an underused tactic in marketing from my perspective.

How To Set Up A Market Survey
A market survey has to be thoroughly thought through to be effective. It can't be too long and yet it needs to ask the right questions. Often, those dong a market survey miss the chance to truly add value by not asking the right questions or framing the questions wrongly i.e. they are open to interpretation on the part of the respondent.

Gaining Insights into Buying a New ETRM System - By Patrick Reames and Gary M. Vasey, Ph.D.
Daily IssueAlert
4/21/2008

Free

Over the last 2-3 years, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in the natural resources and energy sector have exploded in popularity with investors. ETF’s have actually been available to investors in the US since 1993 and in Europe from 1999.

An ETF is simply a pool fund invested with a stated investment objective, for example, a tracker fund for the energy sector or geographical area. Shares owned in this fund by investors are in turn traded on an exchange.
Just two years ago there were only a small number of ETF’s in natural resources, utilities and energy. These Exchange Traded Funds were quite popular but only allowed investors to invest in an equity-oriented fund, i.e. one that tracked an equity index. Now that has changed. Today, there are numerous ETFs available to investors and they appear to fall into three categories;

• Those that track an equity index;
• Those that track a commodity index; and,
• Those that ostensibly track the commodity itself.

I had no clue what a mechanics lien was when the term was first mentioned to me but it turns out to be a lien you use if you provided construction services and your client fails to pay. A mechanic lien is a way to get your customer to pay for your services.

I found this out browsing an attorney's site that specializes in doing this for his clients. Funnily enough, he also offers education and training on how to do it from his website. It also has a very useful FAQ section that explains the entire process in some detail. ProLien is owned and operated by one of America’s most experienced Mechanic’s Lien (Construction) attorneys. A 30-year veteran, he has represented construction professionals throughout California and he knows how crucial accurate preliminary notices are to securing your lien rights and ultimately being able to collect on unpaid accounts.

In the energy business, construction projects are everywhere. As a service provider in construction projects his represents a website resource to visit to understand your rights and what you can do if your client fails to pay for the services provided.

Crude oil has again reached record prices so how far can it go? Well, the answer to that question is best addressed in looking at the fundamentals initially. The fundamentals have not changed. Oil is still in supply/demand tightness. OPEC remains unconvinced of the need for more supply to the market and say the market is well supplied. In fact, it is not and the slightest disruption or threat of disruption has an impact on price formation as a result. Indeed, wherever you look, it is difficult not to be bullish. All major areas of supply have political issues associated with them from Nigeria to Latin America to the Middle East.

On the other side of the equation is demand. Plainly the US is in recession and the economic issues are spilling over into other countries like the UK for example. As prices rise for energy and fuels, demand will experience some contraction. But right now this is more than compensated for by the demand growth in China and India - so it doesn't have much impact in reality.

Drive a Dodge? If so you might want to visit San Diego Dodge who specialize in selling and servicing the American Dream machine. They sell both new and used vehicles and of course offer financing to do either and if you contact them via the Internet they promise to respond within 24 hours.

This is a company that uses its website too. You can schedule a service or appointment etc. actually right on their website for convenience. That American Dream Machine is just around the corner at San Diego Dodge.

San Diego Dodge state that "we want a non-threatening sales environment, convenient shopping when your schedule allows and as always friendly and efficient service." That's a good aim and promise so stop by and say hello from us.

San Diego Dodge - premier dodge dealerships in san diego.

I discovered a couple of very useful hedge fund blogs recently that are well worth visiting and invited the man behind the blogs to be a contributor to this site. Richard Wilson will soon guest blog on this site and the Energy hedge Fund Center.

Richard's site provide a wealth of intelligence and information on hedge funds generally. His blog 'Hedge Fund' is full of useful articles and also discusses important issues such as hedge fund due diligence. He has written so many articles about hedge funds and the industry that he is able to group sets of articles comprehensively under titles such as Hedge Fund Marketing.

We are excited that Richard will blog on our sites too on the topic of hedge funds and welcome him as a contributor.

Do check out his blog.

Here are some recommended books.....

The UK can be a really cold, cold place and living in a home without central heating isn't much fun. Since the advent of North Sea gas, natural gas central heating systems have proved very popular as natural gas is clean and relatively cheap.

But if you don't have clean natural gas central heating already here is a company that you should visit - Northern Gas Heating. They specialize in heating installation with a mission to " deliver better service and better prices than any other central heating company."

The company also offers other services such as boiler service and products such as
combi boilers. But they also offer a range of incentives too such as a free shower when you have a central heating system installed by them and a pay nothing for a year with zero interest financing option.

t is always good to see a project completed and so it is with a book. Writing a book is often portrayed somewhat romantically in movies and so on but in fact, as Patrick Reames and I can both vouch, it is a real pain. Every time you think you are done, a new round of edits are passed back to you and you wearily go through the stuff again wondering if it still makes any sense. But finally – there is light at the end of the tunnel and it’s done. Last week, the second in the ‘expert’ series of books on energy trading and risk management software finally was published. Titled – Selecting and Implementing Energy Trading, Transaction and Risk Management Software – A Primer – the book was authored and edited by Patrick Reames and myself. It’s already selling very well for such an obscure topic I am pleased to say.

As that project wound down, a new one started. Namely, preparing for UtiliPoint’s European Executive Summit in Prague at the end of April (details at www.utilipoint.com). We have a really good line up of speakers, an excellent location and hopefully – a good conference that will attract many people across the industry.

UtiliPoint's Executive Summit in Prague is rapidly approaching so if you haven't registered it might be time because it is filling up very quickly. We have a really good agenda lined up too;

Monday, April 28, 2008

8:30 am – 9:00 am Registration for the Executive Forum

9:00 am – 9:10 am WELCOME & OPENING REMARKS BY EVENT CHAIRMAN
Gary M. Vasey, Ph.D., General Manager, Europe
UTILIPOINT INTERNATIONAL, INC.

9:10 am – 10:00 am EUROPEAN UNION DIRECTIVE 3: WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOUR UTILITY?
Martin Dunlea, UtiliPoint Advisory Board Member and former CIO, BORD GAIS EIRANN
The EU Directive 3 will soon be the topic of discussion for utilities operating in the European Union. What does it mean? What will be required? How does it compare to Directive 1 and 2? How difficult will it be to comply? These issues will be addressed in this informative presentation.

10:00 am – 10:30 am Morning Networking Break

10:30 am – 11:15 am PROVISION OF GLOBAL TRADING SYSTEMS
Neil Vig, Trading Systems Manager, INTERNATIONAL POWER PLC

After several weeks of essentially one way movement – up – there was a commodities correction a week ago and that begs the questions is this correction the end of the commodities bull run? Assessing that question is difficult because economic news from the United States suggests recession and therefore decreased demand for commodities yet demand from Asian economies remains extremely high in tight commodity markets. In a sense, investors are seeking a dichotomy in which demand slumps in the west but Asian demand levels more than compensate for that slump.

The US “recession” is also spreading to impact various European countries most notably the UK. It will continue to spread into various European economies in my view. At the core of the issue though is the US Dollar and while the European Central Bank remains focused on inflationary fears and the US Federal Reserve on economic growth, it would seem that the US Dollar will continue its downward spiral thus impacting commodity prices.

The world of hedge funds is often viewed somewhat suspiciously by those in the mainstream energy industry though traders will tell you that it is increasingly likely that many of their counterparties are investment vehicles these days. Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Mr. Michael Laznicka, CEO of Gardner Finance based in Zug, Switzerland. Mr. Laznicka’s firm is the investment advisor to two fund of hedge fund products in the energy space and I think you will find his quite candid views on a range of issues very interesting……

Vasey: Gardner advises a variety of investment vehicles in energy and the broader natural resources space including an index and two fund of hedge funds in energy. Can you explain what a fund of hedge funds is and why energy should be a focus for such a vehicle?

UtiliPoint® International, Inc. (UtiliPoint) announces that it has released the second book in it’s UtiliPoint Expert Series focused on the implementation of Energy Trading, Transaction and Risk Manaement Software. The book, ‘Selecting and Implementing Energy Trading, Transaction, and Risk Management Software - A Primer‘ co-authored and edited by Patrick E. Reames and Dr. Gary M. Vasey is now available for purchase.

“The popularity of our first book on ETRM software has convinced us that a book on implementing ETRM software was both long overdue and demanded by the marketplace,“ said Dr. Vasey. “The new book draws upon UtiliPoint’s extensive research and expertise in this area to deliver an experiential guide to selecting and implementing ETRM software.“

The new book focuses in on selecting and implementing ETRM software and includes UtiliPoint’s research in this area as well as the combined expertise of its two principal authors. Additionally, it draws upon the expertise of the book‘s sponsors, reputable and leading consulting and sevices firms, to present a compehensive primer on the topic.

February was a stellar month for commodities across the board even as equity markets continued to fall and exhibit volatility. The energy sector rebounded from January’s losses with WTI Crude Oil futures up by 11% and reaching a new record in the process. Metals also performed well with Platinum reaching new records (NYMEX Platinum was up 28+%) .Gold tested new highs. In fact almost all metals – precious and base – gained. It was a similar story for softs and agricultural commodities with grains such as CBOT Wheat up by almost 21%. But what basis is there for such performance?

On the energy side, there was plenty to drive the market. Turkey’s incursion into Iraq, on-going tensions around Iran, President Chavez’s remarks regarding cutting off oil to the US, tensions between Colombia, Venezuela and other South American nations, disruptions in the North Sea, OPEC talk of production quota cuts and inventory falls in the US. All of these issues helped contribute to the rise in energy futures and prices.

In 2007, UtiliPoint International, Inc. undertook a survey of European energy traders and utility companies with the objective of benchmarking and understanding their trading application portfolios, trading IT environment, and levels of integration. The survey did not ask about their ETRM software solution specifically but rather the systems used around it and the levels of integration between them. It also looked at the IT architectures and infrastructure that supports the broader trading business function.
The study report is about to be released and may be found for purchase here.

Demographics