Message-ID: <3281576.1075840216103.JavaMail.evans@thyme>
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 08:26:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: jeffrey.sherrick@enron.com
To: kenneth.lay@enron.com, jeff.skilling@enron.com, joseph.sutton@enron.com, 
	cliff.baxter@enron.com
Subject: EGEP Sale Announcement
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-From: Jeffrey Sherrick
X-To: Kenneth Lay, Jeff Skilling, Joseph W Sutton, Cliff Baxter
X-cc: 
X-bcc: 
X-Folder: \Kenneth_Lay_Dec2000\Notes Folders\All documents
X-Origin: LAY-K
X-FileName: klay.nsf

Ken, Jeff , Joe & Cliff,

This is a copy a note I sent to PR(Steve Kean & John Ambler), IR(Mark Koenig) 
and Enron India(Sanjay Bhatnagar & Jimmy Mogal) regarding our internal 
announcement to  EGEP/EOGIL employees in Houston and India on October 13, 
2000.


On Friday (last night Houston time) we announced to employees Enron's 
decision to sell Enron Oil & Gas India Ltd. (EOGIL), our subsidiary that owns 
a 30% interest in the Panna, Mukta and Tapti concession areas.    We now have 
bankers involved and a data room is being prepared in Houston which  made it 
extremely difficult to keep the deal quiet any longer.  There were numerous 
rumors circulating through the office, but the reality of the announcement 
was still a shock to most of the employees in India and Houston. Basically we 
said the following:
 1) Selling assets or companies is a routine part of Enron's strategy to 
redeploy capital in the higher return opportunities.  The company has 
exposure to a number of tremendous opportunities today that were not 
envisioned even twelve months ago.  In line with this strategy, we are 
placing EOGIL in the market.
 2) Depending on the success of finding an acceptable buyer for EOGIL,  we 
will be reviewing the balance of our portfolio for transfer to other Enron 
entities or for sale as separate packages.  We anticipate closing the EOGIL 
transaction and rationalizing the remaining portfolio by March 31, 2001.  
 3) Pending the success outlined in item #2, we will eliminate Enron Global 
E&P as an Enron business unit on March 31, 2001.
 4) We announced some interim staff changes to facilitate the process. 
  a) Jeff Sherrick would re-focus his time largely on the sale process
  b) Mike Stewart will be responsible for all India activity except the sale 
process
  c) Steve Harper will be responsible for EGEP's sale activity and 
coordination with our bankers and Corporate Development
 5) Commented on the potential impact to employees in general terms.  We told 
them it was pre-mature to outline all of the possibilities until we signed a 
PSA with a buyer.  However, in general, there is a good likelihood that many 
people will either have opportunities for future employment with the buyers 
or through redeployment within Enron.  Those people that do not remain with 
the assets or are not redeployed in Enron will be involuntarily terminated 
March 31, 2001 unless they are needed to close a transaction or to provide 
transition services to a buyer.
 
I would like to keep this as low-keyed as possible.  Last year when we were 
for sale there were not a lot of comments, but you never know.  If anyone in 
the media picks up on this I would expect it to happen early next week.  Mike 
Stewart is currently in India in the Mumbai office (01191228395841) and can 
be reached at the Mariott after-hours(01191228577878).  He is fully briefed 
on our position regarding the activities within EGEP and EOGIL.  Mike will be 
traveling offshore and to Baroda over the weekend and on Monday.  I will be 
available all weekend and next week at the following numbers; (work) 
713-853-5934, (home) 281-320-2198, (cell) 713-569-4713.  I would suggest 
talking with Mike or I before making any comments to the media if possible.

This afternoon I notified our partners and the Gov't of India of our 
intention to market our assets.  I will be making a trip to India soon to 
visit with the appropriate people in these organizations within the next two 
weeks.  While I wouldn't expect this to happen, please refer any inquiries 
from our partners (ONGC and Reliance) or the GOI to Mike or me.  As you might 
expect, we want to be careful and consistent in our message to these 
groups.   

I will keep you informed regarding any changes to the above.  If you have any 
questions, contact me at the above numbers.

jeff