An Enron representative in China said on Thursday it was considering selling its stake in a profitable power plant in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, its last operation on the Chinese mainland.

A senior Enron executive involved in the power-plant joint venture said: "The pressure to repay debts is fairly heavy and possibly we'll have to sell our stake.

"But there is no detailed plan yet. It's just a matter of intention so far." The executive said the business was going well, despite the turmoil at Enron's headquarters.

If the decision is made to sell, Enron would likely sell all of its 51 per cent stake in the plant's operator, the Sichuan Jialing Electric Power Company, which has a registered capital of 920 million yuan (US$110 million).

The executive said potential buyers will be largely limited to foreign companies as the other investor in the power plant - the State-owned Sichuan Electric Power Corporation - still prefers foreign capital.

"Our project is profitable and quite a few foreign companies have expressed their interest," he said, refusing to give further details.

An official with the Chinese partner said: "They're preparing to transfer their stake. And the project is going on fairly well."

Enron's probable bankruptcy seems not to have disrupted the functioning of the power plant but an official with PetroChina still felt China's largest oil company had had a lucky escape.

Earlier, PetroChina had considered a strategic partnership with Enron to build a US$300 million gas pipeline in Northwest China. The PetroChina official said: "Luckily, we didn't complete the deal."

Months before it filed the largest bankruptcy in US history on December 2, souring financial conditions had pushed Enron to start retreating from the Chinese market, where it had made substantial progress over the past seven years.

Enron Petroleum and Natural Gas (China) Ltd, its major upstream business arm in China, ended all its operations in December.

(China Daily January 18, 2002)