1.   This was a collaborative effort involving the three largest energy companies.

2.   The new system, developed by Dr Roger Billings of the American Academy of Science and known as LaserCel, is being tested by car manufacturers and energy companies.

3.   Already, Wall Street has almost halted the sale of stock by merchant energy companies.

4.   Along with electric companies, utillity funds sometimes hold positions in telephone companies, natural-gas producers and energy transmission companies.

5.   Already, some energy trading companies are having a difficult time making long-term trades, because their credit ratings have fallen below investment grade.

6.   Also, eSpeed got a boost from the trouble at the Enron Corp., the giant energy company that filed for bankruptcy a month ago.

7.   Although chemical earnings declined in the quarter, they remained much higher on a full-year basis for the energy companies.

8.   American Airlines dumped its energy company.

9.   American energy companies, attentive to discoveries of enormous reserves of oil and natural gas, take an interest in what happens in that key North African state.

10.   Amid the Internet mania, such figures spurred other energy companies to jump into broadband, though none was as aggressive as Enron in its wooing of investors.