Subject: FW: Northern Natural Gas
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 05:43:50 -0800 (PST)

FYI

-----Original Message----- 
From: General Announcement/Corp/Enron@ENRON on behalf of Stan Horton - Chairman & CEO of Enron Global Services@ENRON 
Sent: Thu 1/3/2002 11:09 PM 
To: All ETS Announcement@ENRON 
Cc: 
Subject: Northern Natural Gas

Dear ETS Colleague: 

On Thursday, January 3, Enron entered into a settlement over Dynegy's exercise of its option to acquire the Northern Natural Gas pipeline.  The settlement allows Dynegy to exercise the option and assume interim control of the pipeline while Enron pursues its damage claim against Dynegy.  

In this respect, Enron Corp. has carefully weighed the substantial costs and turmoil that litigating this possession issue would create for the company and the employees of Northern Natural Gas.  Consequently, Enron Corp. has decided not to contest interim possession and allow the transfer of Northern Natural Gas to Dynegy, while the larger issues affecting its future are resolved.

The company has concluded that with this settlement, Enron should be able to resolve the issue more quickly, as well as avoid the legal cost burden and distractions to the business from protracted litigation in state court.  For the Northern Natural Gas employees, I believe this decision should allow them to steer clear of the dispute and focus on the day-to-day satisfaction of running a valuable, successful business.

Beginning immediately we will be working to achieve a smooth transition and to align the appropriate resources to assure continued safe, reliable and efficient operation of Northern Natural Gas.  

Over many years we have run high quality, cost conscious and profitable businesses in ETS.  Keep up the good work! 

Stan