Aquila, Engage to Participate On Socalgas' Energy Marketplace Web Site

Business Wire, August 6, 1999

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 6, 1999--

Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) has announced that two of the nation's 10 largest gas marketers -- Aquila Energy and Engage Energy US, L.P. -- have signed agreements with SoCalGas to participate as marketers on the utility's Energy Marketplace Web site.

Energy Marketplace (www.energymarketplace.com), launched in November 1997, is the nation's first Internet-based retail shopping center for energy. Energy Marketplace provides customers with free real-time access to comparative information on energy service providers, electric and natural gas prices and other energy information.

Energy Marketplace features a request for proposal (RFP) function that enables customers to secure price quotes from independent energy suppliers based on the customers' specific consumption profile and price preferences.

With the addition of Aquila and Engage, Energy Marketplace now hosts 16 marketers serving natural gas and/or electric customers in California on its site. Energy Marketplace has received national recognition from Sun Microsystems and various Internet publications for its innovative use of technology to foster customer choice programs.

"Aquila and Engage are among the top 10 gas marketers in the nation, and we're pleased to have them join us as we continue to expand the site," said Lee Stewart, president of Energy Transportation Services at SoCalGas. "Their participation broadens the energy service offerings available to our customers over the Internet."

"We look forward to exploring additional avenues to markets in California and other geographic areas as Energy Marketplace expands," said Richard McElroy, vice president of marketing for Engage.

For a small fee, marketers can participate as suppliers on the system and receive pricing requests from customers. Marketers can also use Energy Marketplace to display detailed information on their companies and service offerings.

Aquila Energy is ranked as the second-largest wholesaler of natural gas and third-largest in electric power. Aquila serves more than 15,000 industrial, utility and commercial customers across the United States and Canada, marketing an average of 10.4 billion cubic feet of gas per day in the first quarter of 1999, and a total of 121 million megawatt-hours of electricity for the year ended Dec. 31, 1998.

Aquila's parent, UtiliCorp United, is an international energy company with more than 4.5 million customers across the United States and in Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia. On March 31, 1999, the company had $6.4 billion in assets and 12-month sales of $13.5 billion.

Engage is a joint venture company of The Coastal Corp., a Houston-based diversified energy holding company with consolidated assets of more than $12 billion (US), and Westcoast Energy Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, a major Canadian natural gas company with assets of approximately $11 billion (Canadian).

Engage offers a full spectrum of energy services, including natural gas and electricity sales and trading activities, energy management services, structured storage and transportation service, structured power and management services, energy risk management and financial services.

Southern California Gas Co. is the nation's largest natural gas distribution utility, serving 18 million consumers through 4.9 million meters. The company's service territory encompasses 23,000 square miles in most of central and Southern California. SoCalGas is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE), a Fortune 500 energy services holding company based in San Diego.