"The survey pointed to several interesting contradictions," Richard Claeys, vice president for RKS Research & Consulting's Western region, told Reuters on Monday.

"The customers interviewed said Enron's downfall had limited impact on their organizations, yet responses conflict with an emerging sense of caution and evidence of concrete new measures being taken to hold energy suppliers to higher levels of contract fulfillment."

The mini-survey of 50 large commercial and industrial companies across the United States was conducted at the end of February by the independent market research and public opinion polling organization based in North Salem, New York.

The survey has not, however, been released to the public.

According to a copy of the survey obtained by Reuters, a majority -- 68 percent -- said recent events will not change the way they negotiate contracts with their energy suppliers.

Nevertheless, nearly a third of them are making changes.

In open-ended responses to the telephone interviews, energy decision-makers at the companies said:

RIPPLE EFFECT More ominously, eight in 10 of the companies surveyed said they believe the events that led to Enron's fall are not an aberration but could recur at another energy trading company.

And pluralities maintain that the business practices identified with top Enron executives are in effect at other energy traders.

Enron, once the nation's largest trader of natural gas and electricity, filed the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history in December. The house of cards came tumbling down in mid-October when Enron declared a third-quarter loss and a billion-dollar reduction in shareholder equity linked to questionable off-balance-sheet deals.

In the latest blow to the troubled energy trading sector, Houston-based power generation and energy trader Reliant Resources Inc. ((RRI.N)) on Monday said it engaged in transactions intended solely to boost trading volumes and puff up revenues.

Reliant Resources said the trades, in which two parties buy and sell electricity to each other at the same price, made up 10 percent of its revenues over the past three years, and last year accounted for one-fifth of its electricity trading.

The news pushed Reliant shares more than 20 percent lower, sending the share prices of other energy traders down.

TIGHTER OVERSIGHT The latest disclosures come as regulatory authorities and credit rating agencies step up investigations of the sector in the wake of Enron's bankruptcy.

Regulatory probes, credit rating downgrades and allegations of fraudulent deals and energy market manipulation have sent share prices in the sector tumbling in the past six months.

In the February survey, energy prices remain the major criterion in decisions to purchase energy from companies other than local suppliers followed by fiscal credibility, contract length, and the organization's history in the energy business.

"While the quantitative responses...maintain the pre-eminence of price as a criterion for changing suppliers, the open-ended comments reveal a sense that the bar is being raised," according to the survey.