Why did Enron earn fees by acting as an intermediary between energy producers and customers?

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Enron scandal The Enron logo outside the company's headquarters, Houston.

Enron acted as an intermediary between energy producers and their customers to facilitate the trading of derivative contracts. By negotiating these contracts, Enron allowed producers to mitigate the risk of energy-price fluctuations by fixing the selling price of their products. In exchange for providing this service and creating a market for these trades, the company earned a fee.1