Washington: In a surprise move, disgraced energy giant Enron Corp has put its most valuable assets up for sale to pay back its creditors.

The sale of the 12 top assets of the firm, including key pipelines, would be tantamount to liquidation, sources familiar with the firm said.

The assets put on sale also include Portland General Electric, the Portland, and Oregon that serves more than seven lakhs customers in the Pacific North West.

"One of the possibilities is if the bids are sufficient, you do end up selling off the company. There would not be a lot left," the firm's spokesman John Ambler was quoted as saying.

However, he warned that the company could back off from any sale if the bidders are looking only for bargains.

Enron will go for a first round of bids in October, a final round in November and evaluate and possibly accept some or all of them in December.

The embattled firm has been restructuring itself since it filed for bankruptcy in December 2001, then the largest bankruptcy in US history. Now WorldCom Inc. has filed the largest.

Enron's new chief executive Stephen Cooper has said that his main goal is to squeeze as much money as possible out of the firm for the creditors.

Thousands of Enron employees lost their savings and pensions when the company went bust in December.

PTI