empowerNET Names Senior Management Team.

Business Editors

CINCINNATI & DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 27, 2001

empowerNET, the joint venture company formed by Cinergy Ventures, LLC and SchlumbergerSema, to provide Application Service Provider (ASP)-hosted energy delivery and energy market management technologies to small- and mid-sized utilities, today announced the selection of its senior management team.

Douglas C. Taylor has been appointed president and chief executive officer. He previously served as vice president and general counsel of Cinergy's Power Technology and Infrastructure Services Business Unit.

Christopher J. Crosby has been named vice president of corporate development. He was previously director of strategy, unregulated energy markets, for SchlumbergerSema.

Jason R. Ihaia has been selected as vice president of technology. He served as manager of advanced technologies for SchlumbergerSema.

Steven Y. Duncan has been appointed vice president of finance. He was director of e-business development at Cinergy Ventures.

Gerry Vurciaga has been named vice president of business development. He was director, business innovations, at SchlumbergerSema.

empowerNET brings together SchlumbergerSema's energy technology expertise and Cinergy's utility operations expertise to offer transaction-based, Internet hosted technology services for utilities who previously could not cost-justify purchase of the technologies being offered. The initial ASP offerings will encompass energy delivery resource planning (EDRP) solutions for distribution operations and an "eValue portal" offering load management, supply management and energy market information management.

Taylor was one of the founders of Cinergy Ventures and served as associate general counsel for Cinergy Corp., heading its transactional legal group. He had also served as general counsel to the Cinergy Investments business unit. Prior to joining Cinergy, he worked at several large law firms including McBride, Baker and Coles in Chicago. He holds a bachelors in business administration from the University of Cincinnati and a juris doctor from Pepperdine University School of Law.

Crosby has 20 years of experience in all aspects of the energy industry. Prior to joining SchlumbergerSema, he worked for Duke Energy in executive marketing positions at Duke Solutions, Inc. and Duke Engineering and Services, Inc. He began his career as a nuclear scientist at Duke Power Co. He holds a bachelors in physical sciences from Davidson College and an MBA from the Queens College McColl School of Business.

Ihaia brings his extensive knowledge of business and technical modeling to consulting assignments in the utilities industries. He has served as a technical consultant and project manager for Cable Services Group. He also was a senior software engineer for SchlumbergerSema and for the Australian-based company, Contracting Services. He holds a bachelors of information technology from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and is working on a masters of geographical information systems there.

Duncan has served in several managerial positions in business and corporate development at Cinergy over the past 12 years. Prior to joining Cinergy, he was a consulting manager with Ernst & Young with a focus on financial feasibility and venture formation. He holds a bachelors in business administration from Indiana University and an MBA from Ohio State University.

Verciaga brings more than 20 years of experience in the energy industry to empowerNET including management roles in business development at New Century Energies and 2020 Energy Ventures. He has also held positions in marketing, business planning and policy development at Public Service of Colorado. He holds a bachelors in business from the University of Colorado.

About Cinergy Ventures

Cinergy Ventures LLC is part of Cinergy Corp.'s Power Technology and Infrastructure Services strategic business unit, responsible for pursuing technology equity investments and e-business development. Cinergy Corp., one of the nation's leading diversified energy companies, has a focused strategy intent on growing its energy merchant business. Its energy merchant business owns, operates or has under development over 21,000 megawatts of generation. Cinergy has the sixth largest electricity trading organization in the U.S. as well as physical and financial gas trading capabilities of 35 bcf/day. The "into Cinergy" power trading hub is the most liquid trading hub in the United States. Cinergy's energy merchant business operates in several regions of the U.S. and is based on a profitable balance of asset development, customer origination, marketing and trading, and industrial-site cogeneration infrastructure development.

Cinergy also owns regulated operations in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky that serve about 1.5 million electric customers and about 500,000 gas customers. In addition, Cinergy manages one of the industry's top power technology portfolios.

About SchlumbergerSema

SchlumbergerSema is a leading information technology services company providing IT consulting, systems integration, managed services, products and IP network security solutions serving the oil and gas, telecommunications, utility, finance, transport and public sector markets. With more than 30,000 employees in 130 countries, SchlumbergerSema is one of two business segments of Schlumberger Limited, a global technology services company. Schlumberger Limited acquired Sema plc in April 2001. In 2000, Schlumberger revenue was $9.6 billion and Sema plc revenue was $2.4 billion. Additional information can be found at www.slb.com.