Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

State-run firms don't want Enron's assets

Leading state-run firms have rejected proposals from financial institutions to acquire assets of US energy firm Enron's Dabhol Power Co, officials said on Thursday.

Enron wants to sell its 65-per cent stake in Dabhol Power Co which is embroiled in a payments dispute with a local utility.

Officials said some financial institutions had suggested National Thermal Power Corporation, Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Gas Authority of India Ltd could buy the troubled Dabhol Power Co's assets.

NTPC chairman C P Jain told reporters the company had written to the federal government that it was not interested in the project. "We don't think it is a commercially viable proposition for the organisation."

Officials said financial institutions had also proposed that ONGC and GAIL could buy the LNG import and regasification facilities of the Dabhol plant south of Bombay.

ONGC chairman Subir Raha said ONGC was not interested. "Right now it is not on our table. We are not considering it," he told reporters.

Dabhol's first phase has a generating capacity of 740 MW. It has been idling since May when Maharashtra State Electricity Board, its only customer, stopped buying power saying it was too costly and that Enron had violated a part of the contract.

Dabhol's second phase was 97 per cent complete when further construction was stopped because of the dispute.

The first phase used naphtha as fuel, but the second phase, that will have a generating capacity of 1,444 MW, will use LNG as fuel.

ALSO READ:
The Enron Saga