I’m just back from New Orleans and the SunGard Energy Summit. This year the energy groups within SunGard, SunGard Energy Solutions, SunGard Consulting, and Fame, broke out of the SunGard World conference to provide more focus and depth for their energy clients.

Turnout for the event was strong, with what appeared to be more than 200 folks in attendance. Tuesday’s calendar was a strong roster of industry topics with Wednesday and today’s topics being primary around product development. Even though I had to leave early I was able to sit in on the Entegrate Application Suite presentation. Youlanda Vaughn, vp of product management for the product presented some detailed information on how they have made significant progress in improving support and reducing the number of issues reported. I’ve known Youlanda for years, having first worked with her at Amerada Hess and later with TransEnergy and Altra. She’s clearly done a great job in her role in leading the design, development and support on that product.

Prior to my presentation on Tuesday about energy market trends and their impact on ETRM systems, Rusty Brazial, Bentek’s vp of sales and marketing and CTO, gave a very interesting presentation on the impacts of the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline, which comes online in December. This new line will move gas out of the Rocky Mountain region to the east, opening up new markets for producers in Colorado and Wyoming. With gas having traded in the Rocky Mountain region for less than a quarter as recently as a few weeks ago, the region clearly needed a solution to their constrained capacity to the east and south. This new line should be a boon to them.

However, its not such great news for producers in the Anadarko and Permian Basins and the gulf coast. As more than a bcf of gas is brought east to serve the midwest and northeast, that gas will displace the gas already flowing to these regions, pushing it back down to the south, with serious implications for producers south of Missouri. As Rusty pointed out, it will also impact Henry Hub as more capacity is taken up with gas that can’t flow north or northeast. It’s hard to tell just how the market will ultimately find equilibrium in the region, but there is no question that it will result in a leveling of prices from the Rockies to the gulf coast.

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