EOG EOG Resources Inc

By Rebecca Elliott 

Former Enron Corp. Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling has been released from federal custody after serving more than 12 years in prison for his role in one of the biggest business scandals in American history. He re-enters a world in which some of the businesses built from his old company's less appreciated assets have become formidable in their own right.

Enron is a symbol of corporate fraud and excess since the Houston-based energy conglomerate collapsed nearly two decades ago amid questions about its accounting practices. Mr. Skilling, who was released Thursday according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, was among several executives who faced criminal charges after the company filed for bankruptcy in 2001.

A lawyer who represented Mr. Skilling didn't immediately return requests for comment, nor did the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He was convicted in 2006 on counts of fraud, conspiracy and insider trading, and after the verdict, continued to maintain his innocence.

A former McKinsey & Co. consultant, Mr. Skilling, 65, joined Enron in 1990 and helped transform the natural gas pipeline company into a trading behemoth before assuming the top job in early 2001. While Enron proved to be worth far less than it claimed after its finances came under scrutiny later that same year, many of the assets Enron cast aside over the years became valuable building blocks for some of today's top energy firms, from leading shale driller EOG Resources Inc. to pipeline giant Kinder Morgan Inc. to the wind arm of General Electric Co.

EOG Resources Inc.

EOG has emerged as a leading oil and gas exploration and production company since being spun off from Enron in 1999. The Houston-based driller once known as Enron Oil & Gas Co. was among the pioneers of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the techniques that have allowed shale drillers to extract a bounty of oil and gas from dense rock formations.

While shale companies primarily used these methods to unlock natural gas early on, EOG recognized that the same approach could be used to economically extract crude as well, a pivot that has helped drive domestic oil production to an all-time high of 12 million barrels a day this month, according to the Energy Information Administration. EOG now drills in basins from West Texas to Wyoming.

Kinder Morgan Inc.

After being passed over for the top job at Enron, Richard Kinder left the company in 1996, going on to start a pipeline business that would grow into Kinder Morgan. The former Enron chief operating officer, along with energy lawyer William Morgan, bought Enron Liquids Pipeline L.P. for about $40 million, and subsequently expanded the pipeline system, ultimately developing a vast network of conduits that crisscrosses the U.S.

The Houston-based company now has an interest in roughly 84,000 miles of pipelines that transport oil, natural gas and other products, regulatory filings show, making it one of the largest pipeline firms in the U.S.

GE Renewable Energy

A subsidiary of General Electric Co. bought Enron's wind power assets out of bankruptcy in 2002, marking the company's foray into what would become a leading form of renewable energy generation. GE has since become one of the largest wind turbine manufacturers, joining companies such as Vestas Wind Systems AS and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA. The company sold 2,825 wind turbines in 2017, when its renewable energy business generated $10.3 billion in revenue, regulatory filings show.

Mr. Skilling's plans now that he has become a free man are unclear. But he told The Wall Street Journal in an interview shortly after his 2006 conviction that he might eventually want to share more of Enron's story.

"At some point, people will ask what really happened [at Enron]," he said at the time. "It would be good if they had someone there who could tell them."

--Russell Gold and

Katherine Blunt

contributed to this article.

Write to Rebecca Elliott at rebecca.elliott@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 24, 2019 09:50 ET (14:50 GMT)

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