POWER station workers could face months of uncertainty before a buyer is found for Enron's plant on Teesside.

The collapsed US energy giant has almost a 50 per cent stake in the Teesside Power Plant at Wilton, near Redcar, and that is thought to be worth in the region of £250m.

Other partners in Europe's largest gas fired power station are Midland Power International, Northern Electric and Western Power Distribution.

But it is likely to be some time before negotiations over the future of the plant, known as Epol (Enron Power Operations Limited) can be decided because of its parent's company's complex ownership structure and wranglings over contractual issues.

A spokesman for Enron on Teesside said it was "business as usual" at the power plant and its Teesside sister company Etol (Enron Teesside Operations Limited), because both companies had operated as stand alone businesses, outside the control of its American parent company.