Bankrupt energy giant Enron Corp. has agreed to sell its domestic natural gas pipelines to CCE Holdings LLC, for $2.45 billion in an auction to help the company emerge from one of the most expensive and complicated bankruptcies in history.

Enron owes creditors more than $74 billion.

CCE Holdings, the joint venture of Southern Union Co. and General Electric Co. was the high bidder, Houston-based Enron said in a statement distributed by Business Wire.

Court approval for the winning bid will be sought on September 9.

Southern Union Co. said its joint venture CCE Holdings LLC agreed to acquire the pipeline business CrossCountry Energy LLC from Enron Corp. for $2.35 billion, including the assumption of $461 million in debt.

The US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has issued an order establishing CCE's agreement as the 'Stalking Horse' bid, which remains subject to court

approval, superseding the previously announced acquisition agreement between CrossCountry and another party, natural gas distributor Southern Union said in a release on Wednesday.

GE Commercial Finance Energy Financial Services is the equity partner in the CCE joint venture.

In a separate release, Enron, which filed for Chapter 11 in 2001, confirmed that it accepted the higher bid from CCE and said that will solicit additional bids through August 23.

It expects to close the sale of CrossCountry by mid-December.

In May, Enron had agreed to sell CrossCountry Energy to NuCoastal LLC for for $2.2 billion. NuCoastal on Wednesday agreed to increase its bid to $2.305 billion.

Pipeline unit CrossCountry Energy, Enron's largest remaining business, includes Transwestern Pipeline Co., Citrus Corp. and Northern Plains Natural Gas Co.

The three companies operate 16,074 kilometers of pipelines with 8.5 billion cubic feet of daily gas capacity.