Energy Trading

Enron Corporation, energy and commodities trading company.
Under Lay’s leadership, Enron began to transform itself from a gas pipeline company into a global energy trader. It began trading natural gas commodities in 1989 and electricity in 1994.

Enron eventually became the largest marketer of natural gas in North America and the United Kingdom and the largest marketer of electricity in the United States. Enron branched into other areas of commodities trading, including chemicals, coal, fiber-optic bandwidth, metals, and paper.

It also continued to acquire physical assets, such as a pipeline in Argentina and an electric utility, Portland General Electric, which supplied electricity to 750,000 customers in Oregon.

Enron enjoyed enormous success during the 1990s and into 2000. Its stock price climbed from less than $10 a share in 1991 to a high of $90 in 2000. From 1998 to 2000 its reported revenues increased from $31 billion to more than $100 billion, earning it a place as the seventh-largest company on the Fortune 500 list of the 500 largest companies in the United States. By March 2000 Enron was regarded as the sixth-largest energy company in the world.