POWER company Enron is hoping to sell its share of the Teesside Power Plant in the next couple of months.

The US energy giant, based in Houston, collapsed with more than £8bn worth of debts at the end of November, leaving 900 workers on Tees-side fearing over their futures.

Enron's assets in the North-East are self-financing and are split into Etol (Enron Teesside Operations Ltd), and Epol (Enron Power Operations Ltd).

Etol is the firm's operations on the former ICI site at Wilton, near Redcar, on Tees-side. It is effectively a standalone company.

Epol covers the Power Plant, Europe's largest gas-fired power station. It is the company's 42 per cent stake in Epol, which it plans to sell.

Other stakeholders in the plant include Northern Electric, Midlands Electricity and Western Power Distribution.

The most likely option is for a consortium of the other stakeholders to buy Enron's share, but it is also possible that another consortium could come in or a management buyout could take place.

The sale of Enron's share of the plant is being held back while negotiations take place to make the plant free of the troubled firm.

Officials from the Transport and General Workers' Union, which has members at the plant, said last night they believe a buyer is in the wings.

Last month, administrators PricewaterhouseCooper agreed a £96m sale of Enron Direct, which supplies gas and power to 160,000 small businesses in the UK, to Centrica.

Enron Direct also has an operation on Teesside, as part of Etol.