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Before filing for bankruptcy in 2001, Enron Corporation was one of the largest integrated natural gas and electricity
companies in the world. It marketed natural gas liquids worldwide and operated one of the largest natural gas
transmission systems in the world, totaling more than 36,000 miles. It was also one of the largest independent developers
and producers of electricity in the world, serving both industrial and emerging markets. Enron was also a major supplier of
solar and wind renewable energy worldwide, managed the largest portfolio of natural gas-related risk management
contracts in the world, and was one of the world's biggest independent oil and gas exploration companies. In North
America, Enron was the largest wholesale marketer of natural gas and electricity. Enron pioneered innovative trading
products, such as gas futures and weather futures, significantly modernizing the utilities industry. After a surge of growth in
the early 1990s, the company ran into difficulties. The magnitude of Enron's losses was hidden from stockholders. The
company folded after a failed merger deal with Dynegy Inc. in 2001 brought to light massive financial finagling. The
company had ranked number seven on the Fortune 500, and its failure was the biggest bankruptcy in American history.
Company Origins
Enron began as Northern Natural Gas Company, organized in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1930 by three other companies.
North American Light & Power Company and United Light & Railways Company each held a 35 percent stake in the new
enterprise, while Lone Star Gas Corporation owned the remaining 30 percent. The company's founding came just a few
months after the stock market crash of 1929, an inauspicious time to launch a new venture. Several aspects of the Great
Depression actually worked in Northern's favor, however. Consumers initially were not enthusiastic about natural gas as a
heating fuel, but its low cost led to its acceptance during tough economic times. High unemployment brought the new
company a ready supply of cheap labor to build its pipeline system. In addition, the 24-inch steel pipe, which could
transport six times the amount of gas carried by 12-inch cast iron pipe, had just been developed. Northern grew rapidly in
the 1930s, doubling its system capacity within two years of its incorporation and bringing the first natural gas supply to the
state of Minnesota.
Although still officially named InterNorth, the merged company initially was known as HNG/InterNorth, with dual
headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, and Houston, Texas. In 1986, the company's name was changed to Enron Corp., and
headquarters were consolidated in Houston. After some shuffling in top management, Kenneth L. Lay, HNG's chairman,
emerged as chairman of the combined company. HNG/InterNorth began divesting itself of businesses that did not fit in
with its long-term goals. The $400 million in assets sold off in 1985 included the Peoples division, which sold for $250
million. Also in 1985, Peru's government nationalized Enron's assets there, and Enron began negotiating for payment,
taking a $218 million charge against earnings in the meantime. In 1986, Enron's chemical subsidiary was sold for $603
million. Also in 1986, Enron sold 50 percent of its interest in Citrus Corporation to Sonat Inc. for $360 million but continued
to operate Citrus's pipeline system, Florida Gas Transmission Company. Citrus originally was part of Houston Natural
Gas.
In 1987, Enron centralized its gas pipeline operations under Enron Gas Pipeline Operating Company. Also that year,
Enron Oil & Gas Company, with responsibility for exploration and production, was formed out of previous InterNorth and
HNG operations, including Nortex Oil & Gas, Belco Petroleum, HNG Oil Company, and Florida Petroleum Company. In
1989, Enron Corp. sold 16 percent of Enron Oil & Gas's common stock to the public for about $200 million. That year
Enron received $162 million from its insurers for the Peruvian operations, and it continued to negotiate with the
government for additional compensation.
Enron made significant moves into electrical power, in both independent production and cogeneration facilities, in the late
1980s. Cogeneration plants produce electricity and thermal energy from one source. It added major cogeneration units in
Texas and New Jersey in 1988; in 1989, it signed a 15-year contract to supply natural gas to a cogeneration plant on Long
Island. Also in 1989, Enron reached an agreement with Coastal Corporation that allowed the company to increase the
natural gas production from its Big Piney field in Wyoming. Under the accord, Coastal agreed to extend a pipeline to the
field, since the line already going to it could not handle increased volume. The same year, Enron and El Paso Natural Gas
Company received regulatory approval for a joint venture, Mojave Pipeline Company. The pipeline transports natural gas
for use in oil drilling.
In the United States, states were given the power to deregulate gas and electric utilities in 1994, which meant that
residential customers could choose utilities in the same way that they chose their phone carriers. This looked like an
enormous opportunity for Enron. CEO Lay was fervently in favor of deregulation, believing it would solve problems for
consumers and utilities alike. The company moved into the residential electricity market in 1996, when Enron agreed to
acquire Portland General, an Oregon utility whose transmission lines would give the company access to California's $20-
billion market, as well as access to 650,000 customers in Oregon. In 1997, Enron Energy Services began to supply
natural gas to residential customers in Toledo, Ohio, and contracted to sell wind power to Iowa residents. Through a
subsidiary, Zond Corporation, the company contracted with MidAmerican Energy Company of Houston to supply 112.5
megawatts of wind-generated electricity to about 50,000 homes, the largest single purchase contract in the history of wind
energy. Zond was to build the facility in northwestern Iowa, using about 150 of its Z-750 kilowatt series wind turbines, the
biggest made in the United States.
What apparently drew investors to Enron was its aura of getting in on the ground floor of various related industries. It
seemed to be a new kind of company, not a blundering old regulation-bound utility but a savvy energy trader. Though new
ventures such as broadband trading were not expected to be immediately profitable, Enron supposedly had a sound core
business as a gas and electricity wholesaler. In fact, Enron's core business was floundering. Newsweek (January 21,
2002) estimated that in the late 1990s Enron had lost "about $2 billion on Telecom capacity, $2 billion in water
investments, $2 billion in a Brazilian utility, and $1 billion on a controversial electricity plant in India." An unnamed Enron
insider quoted in Business Week (December 17, 2001) put it this way: "You make enough billion-dollar mistakes, and they
add up." Yet investors were not aware of Enron's troubles. Losses were disguised in elaborate partnerships and joint
ventures, keeping them off Enron's books. Enron's duplicitous bookkeeping kept the stock price high, even as Enron's top
executives began selling off their own holdings. Enron's president Jeffrey Skilling abruptly resigned in August 2001, citing
only personal reasons. The slowdown in technology and Internet stocks brought Enron's stock down too, and it had fallen
almost by half by the third quarter of 2001. At that point the company announced a loss of $618 million. Shortly thereafter,
the company announced that actually it had been misstating its earnings since 1997. While the Securities and Exchange
Commission began investigating irregularities at the company, Enron tried to sell out to another Houston energy company,
Dynegy. That deal collapsed when the extent of Enron's losses became clear. In December 2001, Enron filed for
bankruptcy, the largest ever by an American company. Enron's collapse stirred tremendous fallout. Its executives had
made millions selling off their Enron shares, while many of its employees lost their retirement savings as the stock hit rock
bottom. The accounting firm Arthur Andersen, which had certified Enron's bookkeeping, was disgraced, especially as
revelations surfaced that it had destroyed potentially incriminating documents. The scandal reached into the upper
echelons of government as well, as Enron had given liberally to many politicians, including President George W. Bush and
Attorney General John Ashcroft. CEO Kenneth Lay resigned in January 2002, while the company faced multiple
congressional, criminal, and SEC investigations. The company faced liquidation, with its only valuable asset the network
of natural gas pipelines it had started out with in the mid-1980s.
Principal Subsidiaries: Enron Engineering and Construction; Enron International Inc.; Enron Renewable Energy Corp.;
Enron Ventures Corp.; EOG Resources Inc.; EOTT Energy Partners LP; Florida Gas Transmission Co.; Houston Pipeline
Co.; Transwestern Pipeline Co.; Enron Wind Corp.; Louisiana Resources Co.; Northern Border Pipeline Co.; Northern
Plains Natural Gas Co.; Northern Transportation & Storage; Linc Corp.; Azurix Corp.; Enron Capital & Trade Resource;
Enron Corp.
Chronology
Key Dates:
1930: The company is founded as Northern Natural Gas Company in Omaha, Nebraska.
1947: The company is listed on New York Stock Exchange.
1980: The company's name is changed to InterNorth, Inc.
1985: A merger with Houston Natural Gas Corp. takes place.
1986: The company's name changed to Enron; the new company is headquartered in Houston.
1991: Enron begins overseas expansion.
1999: Launches EnronOnline.
2001: Files for bankruptcy after previously hidden losses come to light.
Additional Details
Public Company
Incorporated: 1930 as Northern Natural Gas Company
Employees: 21,000
Sales: $101 billion (2000)
NAIC: 211111 Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas Extraction; 22121 Natural Gas Distibution; 48621 Pipeline
Transportation of Natural Gas; 221122 Electric Power Distribution; 221119 Other Electric Power Generation.