Allegro Development Releases Allegro Coal; New Coal Offering Adds Further Dimension to Allegro's Full Line of Energy Transaction Software.

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 29, 1999--

Allegro Development, a leading provider of energy software for enterprise strategy management (ESM), recently released Allegro Coal. Allegro Coal is a part of an integrated suite of software products focused specifically on transactions within the energy industry.

Allegro Coal integrates the entire operation capturing and executing purchases, sales, contracts, transportation, and storage, as well as exchanges and physical options.

"Allegro Development has the good fortune to work with some of the strongest energy companies in the world -- and for a good number of these companies, they employ coal as an energy source," said Eldon Klaassen, president of Allegro Development. "It makes good market sense for us to provide an end-to-end, ESM system for all major energy sources -- as we do with gas, power and petroleum liquid fuels -- and coal represents the next logical step in helping us better serve our energy clients."

Allegro Coal captures the essential data at the production site -- how coal is captured, graded and sorted at the mine. Allegro Coal also measures the separation of anthracite, bituminous, and lignite in coal production.

Allegro Coal contains functionality for the sizing and grading of coal, in addition to managing transportation issues, such as movement via rail, truck, barge, or vessel.

"We've broadened our market to accommodate the realities of the energy industry -- Allegro Coal is a part of a fully integrated system -- handling front, middle, and back office functionality in one single database," said Klaassen. "The Allegro system is designed for single data entry, reducing inefficiencies and user error and increasing the speed and smarts for better decision making."

Allegro Coal integrates seamlessly with all other Allegro software products, such as Allegro Crude Oil, Allegro Risk Management and Allegro Exploration and Production.

Allegro Coal was first introduced 17 September at Allegro Summit '99, Allegro's annual user group gathering in Dallas, Texas. Outside the client base, the new product was unveiled publicly at FT Energy's Coal Marketing Days in Pittsburgh, Penn., this past week.

Founded in 1984, Allegro Development provides enterprise strategy management software for energy companies enabling more informed decision-making. Teaming extensive energy industry expertise and advanced technology, Allegro offers a thorough end-to-end suite of business solutions to manage transactions for natural gas, electric power, crude oil, natural gas liquids, refined products, coal, risk management, financial reporting, and exploration and production.

Additional information on Allegro Development is available on the Internet at http://www.allegrodevelopment.com, by sending email to [e-mail], or by calling 214/526-7071.