Houston, TX – July 30August 13, 2010 – marcus evans, a conference producing company, will host the 3^rd Annual Risk Management in Energy Trading Conference, October 21-22, 2010 in Houston, TX. More than 18 leading experts will provide insights on best practices for risk management in energy trading, including managing liquidity risk, optimizing stress testing programs and complying with new CFTC regulatory reforms.

“As energy and financial markets have become more efficient and interwoven, it has become increasingly important for everyone involved with managing the risks associated with energy transactions to learn as much about the topic as possible,” said Michael Carter, Director—Credit Risk, at EDF Trading. “Recent history is littered with stories of those who failed.”

Carter, who has 25 years of experience in the energy industry, will share his knowledge on practical aspects of risk management with this year’s conference attendees. 

With a one-track focus, the 3^rd Annual Risk Management in Energy Trading Conference is a highly intensive, content-driven event that includes case studies, presentations and panel discussions over two full days. This conference targets industry leaders in risk management roles in order to provide an intimate atmosphere for both the delegates and speakers.

Due to the historic passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, this event will provide a comprehensive look at impending regulatory reforms affecting the energy trading industry. Commissioner Jill E. Sommers from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will deliver the conference’s keynote address to provide a firsthand perspective on pressing regulatory issues. Other regulatory reform speakers include Jim Allison, Regional Risk Manager, Gas and Power NA, at ConocoPhillips, and Lisa Epifani from law firm Van Ness Feldman.

“The energy trading and risk management landscape is continuously evolving,” said Darilyn Jones, SVP Risk Control at Sequent Energy Management, and this year’s conference chairperson. “It is a dynamic landscape where the impact of key drivers is sometimes difficult to predict and constantly changing. Understanding the current market and regulatory environment is very important.”

marcus evans invites risk management professionals to join in this cutting-edge, peer-to-peer conference that examines best practices in the energy trading industry. In addition to two days of conference sessions, attendees will have extensive networking opportunities with their peers.

Says Carter, “I have been fortunate enough to experience a marcus evans conference as both an attendee and as a presenter.  Regardless of which side of the podium I was on, I was pleased with the knowledge I gained from the program and the interaction with other participants.”

For more information on this conference or to get a complete list of speakers, sessions or past attendees, visit http://www.marcusevansch.com/RMET or email Michele Westergaard, Michelew@marcusevansch.com

About marcus evans

marcus evans conferences annually produce over 2,000 high quality events designed to provide key strategic business information, best practice and networking opportunities for senior industry decision-makers. Our global reach is utilized to attract over 30,000 speakers annually, ensuring niche focused subject matter presented directly by practitioners and a diversity of information to assist our clients in adopting best practice in all business disciplines.

Contact

Michele Westergaard

312-540-3000 ext. 6625

Michelew@marcusevansch.com

Regulatory developments coming down the tracks are set to impact the energy trading market and in particular risk management practices. Michael Carter, Director of Credit Risk at EDF Trading North America, gives his views on these and some of the other pressing aspects of risk management in the energy trading industry.

- How will the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulatory reforms affect risk management practices in the energy trading industry?

To a large extent it is still unknown as there are still so many details that have to be worked out. I think the CFTC has released a list of 30 areas that they intend to address over the coming year. We don’t know enough details just yet to know how it will affect different companies. For instance they may elect to permit end-user exceptions to differentiate the people who are solely in the business of trading energy derivatives for speculative purposes, versus those who are doing it to hedge a physical position they already have. We just don’t have enough details for people to begin to make grand assumptions about how they’re going to conduct their future business. There is a huge amount of unknown detail hanging out there. This is an 800lb gorilla in the room for a lot of energy companies.

- What is the importance of knowing the fundamentals and going "back to basics" with risk management practices?

There’s a significant convergence within the energy space between the efforts of physical energy companies and financial participants. For instance, you have energy companies who are trading with the banks. Historically they have had different ways of managing their risk. Physical energy companies have typically been more involved in managing their physical business and less involved in managing their financial risk. There was not even a natural gas futures contract until the early 90s. There are many companies in the physical energy space who still aren’t even margining while banks already have all of this in place.  As they are forced to trade more and more with one another, I don’t think you can continue to have this great disparity in how risks are managed between those two massive efforts. There may be a bank, for instance, that will want to trade under an ISDA contract and they’re talking to an oil company that has never had a daily margining requirement and now they’re being forced to. It’s definitely changing the rules of the game and requiring not only the physical companies to learn how to do things like Wall Street does, but it’s requiring Wall Street people to understand some of the nuances of the physical commodity space.

- Can controlling risks in energy trading provide greater market assurance for companies like oil and gas producers, electric providers and gas utilities?

Yes but I think it’s important to remember that those who come to this game looking to manage a latent risk are often simply exchanging one risk for another. Sometimes it’s a more dangerous one. A producer of a product comes to the market with what they need to sell and if they enter into a margining arrangement, they could lock in a profitable deal but be margined into default if prices move and they can’t come up with collateral. That’s sometimes a more dangerous risk to face because it’s unforgiving and it’s over in a few days.  A lot of companies can operate in the red for a while, but ones who can’t meet a margin call literally have only days to fix the problem. If you go in and try to cover a market risk that you face and you sign a contract to agree to provide collateral when prices change, you are exchanging one form of risk for another. That’s a common issue for companies in this market.

- How can risk management give confidence to the insurance companies, banks, and manufacturers that work with energy companies?

One of the issues we have to deal with is the importance in having confidence in your counterparty’s ability to perform. If you have good controls and you believe your counterparty does too, it eases everyone’s concern and lets each party focus on the transaction rather than heightening the tensions and increasing the potential for negative actions. If I’m trading with a counterparty who I believe is weak I’m going to be concerned and I’m going to halt trading at the first sign of trouble rather than giving them the benefit of the doubt - as I may if I thought it was a strong and well controlled company. Entities in the market have a great deal of subjective flexibility when they interact with individual counterparties and sometimes entire classes of counterparties. Simply having a degree of anxiety over your counterparty or particular industry sector can make people take defensive actions more quickly.

- What are the key challenges facing the industry right now?

Uncertainty. What’s the pace of the economic recovery likely to look like? That affects the demand for the product. How is the coal industry going to be affected if there is a change in regulation and public opinion regarding emissions? How is the huge amount of gas that has been discovered in North America going to affect the geopolitical energy balance? Is that going to cause some shifting away from other energy sources? It is very difficult for executives in the energy space to make long term plans.

Another is the unequal application of business practices. That has the opportunity to introduce arbitrage into the trading process. The biggest challenge right now is getting everyone on the same page. Back in the 90s energy companies started trying to adopt Wall Street-style risk management practices.  That’s where the Enrons and the Dynegys of the world started to really introduce something in the energy patch that basically had been in the financial kingdom.  That effort is still underway and is more advanced in commodities like gas and power than it is in oil and coal, for instance, although they are moving in that direction, too.  It is being made more difficult because even more “sophisticated” techniques such as Credit Value Adjustments (CVA) are becoming more common, making the process a moving target.

There are still a dramatic number of physical energy players out there who do not fully embrace the more robust risk management techniques yet. If they’re going to continue to evolve in their business practices, they’re going to have to step up the level of their capabilities and improve the training of their personnel and upgrade their systems and policies.

The marcus evans 3rd Annual Risk Management in Energy Trading Conference will take place on 21-22 October, 2010 in Houston, TX.

For further information on this event contact:

Michele Westergaard
Marketing/PR Coordinator – N.A. Conferences
marcus evans
____________________________________
The NBC Tower, 9th Floor
455 N Cityfront Plaza Drive
Chicago, IL 60611
tel: 312-540-3000 ext.6625
www.marcusevans.com

marcus evans, will host the 2^nd Annual Substation Management and Reliability Conference from September 30-October 1, 2010 in Atlanta, GA. The annual conference will target Heads, Vice Presidents, Director and Managers from Electric Utilities Companies with responsibilities in Substation Engineering and Automation.

By attending this premier conference, delegates will learn how to align substation operations with NERC regulations and will be provided with updates regarding environmental initiatives. Attendees will also gain end user perspectives from companies leveraging the latest Smart Grid technologies to increase efficiency, improve operations and cut costs.

Current speakers include leading experts such as Don Angell, Director of Substation Engineering Services at National Grid, Mark Bruckner, Manager of Transmission Standards & Technology at Entergy Corporation and Ginger Whitaker, Manager of Transmission Substation and Protection at E.ON US.

With a one-track focus, the 2^nd Annual Substation Management and Reliability Conference is a highly intensive, content driven event of case studies and panel discussions over two full days. This conference targets leaders of substation management functions in order to provide an intimate atmosphere for both delegates and speakers.

Previous conference attendees provided us with the following feedback:

"It was good to hear from speakers who have hands-on experience", - Toronto Hydro

“One of the best conferences I have attended in the past five years", - First Energy

Attending this Premiere Conference Will Enable Attendees to Hear Valuable Insights From:

• BC Transmission on conducting a maintenance assessment to maximize existing assets
• Seattle City Light on further automating substation processes for increased reliability
• Northeast Utilities on navigating the requirements and benefits of IEC 61850
• National Grid on determining a proactive plan for maintenance initiatives
• Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative on enhancing communication systems for the collective of real-time data impact substations down the line

For more information on this conference or to get a complete list of speakers, sessions or past attendees, visit http://www.marcusevansch.com/substationmanagement or email Michele Westergaard, Michelew@marcusevansch.com

About marcus evans

marcus evans conferences annually produce over 2,000 high quality events designed to provide key strategic business information, best practice and networking opportunities for senior industry decision-makers. Our global reach is utilized to attract over 30,000 speakers annually, ensuring niche focused subject matter presented directly by practitioners and a diversity of information to assist our clients in adopting best practice in all business disciplines.

Contact:

Michele Westergaard

312-540-3000 ext. 6625

Michelew@marcusevansch.com

www.marcusevans.com