February 2006 Market Clearing in the Energy Industry 78 © Copyright 2006, CCRO. All rights reserved. NCC/ North American Energy Credit and Clearing Corp (“NECC”) New York Mercantile Exchange (“NYMEX”) ICE/LCH Clearnet Virtual Markets Assurance Corporation (“VMAC”) Natural Gas Exchange products will correspond to those that its customers desire to transact. reasonable timeframes. Existing infrastructure, personnel and overall NYMEX capability allow for the launching of new products on a consistent basis. Over the course of the last two and one- half years over 100 products have been added to NYMEX trading platforms. products offered for clearing on ICE with another 100 to follow in early 2006.In addition the same ICE electronic system is used to transact ICE Futures Exchange trades. These can be accessed by the customer using a single user id. some price history, and can add products upon demand from participants. contracts. (Two power contracts, 1 in West US and 1 Alberta Canada, both settle financially.) Coverage of Non- standard Products OTC products initially cleared will align to those with sufficient liquidity to provide a reliable mark to market. As its participation grows, NCC will offer more and more products of various tenors and locations to meet the needs of its customers. NECC believes that once a clearing solution is implemented for physical markets, more liquidity will evolve in the forward OTC markets for new and additional cleared products. We envision much of our future business opportunities deriving from such types of products and intend to continue vigorously serving the community of participants that use them. In early 2006 ICE/LCH Clearnet will trade and clear approximat ely 130 products many of which are essentially non- standard. More products will be added as the market dictates. VMAC swaps have an initial duration of 3 years. This is a function of index availability. VMAC can work with Participants to address the ability to use a 3-year swap to hedge a longer- term physical contract. This can be accomplished satisfactorily, with minimal complication. The facilitation desk is available to help counterparties convert non- standard OTC contracts into NGX contract equivalents.