ENRON & Portland General Assess OPUC Recommendations; Strategy in Place for Settlement Discussions Next Week.

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 17, 1997--ENRON and Portland General Corporation (PGC) announced today that they are reviewing the preliminary recommendations from the Oregon Public Utilities Commission (OPUC) Staff and are prepared to begin settlement discussions next week.

"This is a lengthy, complicated proposal, but the most significant factor is that the staff has recommended approval of the merger," said Geoff Roberts, ENRON's managing director responsible for overseeing the merger. "While the approval has a number of conditions attached to it, we don't want to over analyze the dollar figures attached to recommendations that remain preliminary at this stage.

"We are compiling our questions and issues we believe need clarification and look forward to understanding the staff's methodology and assumptions on certain conditions that we believe raise fundamental policy issues," Roberts added. "Because we are in the middle of a complex procedure, it would be premature to provide further detail on our position on these issues until we have had an opportunity to discuss them directly with the staff."

"We are extremely pleased that the staff did not use this merger proceeding to settle industry-wide restructuring issues," said Al Alexanderson, senior vice president of Portland General Electric. "It further endorses the support we received for the merger just last week from a wide ranging group of local, state and nationally esteemed environmental, natural resource and public interest groups." The PUC has scheduled settlement conferences in the proceeding for January 22-24 and will issue a final recommendation and a proposed order on January 31. The Commission is scheduled to make a final decision on March 17, 1997.

ENRON, one of the world's largest integrated natural gas and electric companies with approximately $15 billion in assets, operates one of the largest natural gas transmission systems in the world; is the largest purchaser and marketer of natural gas and the largest non-regulated marketer of electricity in North America; markets natural gas liquids worldwide; manages the largest portfolio of fixed-price natural gas risk management contracts in the world; is among the leading entities arranging new capital to the energy industry; owns a majority interest in Enron Oil & Gas Company, one of the largest independent (non-integrated) exploration and production companies in the United States; owns a majority interest in Enron Global Power & Pipelines L.L.C., which is owner and manager of operating power plants and natural gas pipelines around the world; and is one of the largest independent developers and producers of electricity in the world. ENRON is traded under the ticker symbol, "ENE."

CONTACT: ENRON

Diane Bazelides, 713/853-6285