HOUSTON -- A high-ranking energy executive died in an apparent suicide over the weekend, officials said Monday.

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Company Officials Discuss Death

El Paso Corp. Senior Vice President and Treasurer Charles Dana Rice was found dead at his southwest Houston home Sunday, company officials said.

Rice, 47, had been employed by the company for 25 years . El Paso Corp. officials said that the employees are deeply saddened by Rice's death.

"We are very deeply saddened by this. We're going to miss him because he was a personal friend as well," company spokeswoman Norma Dunn said Monday.

Company officials wanted to calm investors who reacted negatively on Wall Street. At Monday's close, El Paso stock closed at $21.78, down $3.87 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Company officials released a statement about the trading activity.

"The death of our corporate treasurer, Charles Dana Rice, has been a great loss to our corporation and to me personally," said William A. Wise, chairman, president, and chief executive officer. "This is a tragic event for our company; however, the market reaction is unwarranted. We announced a comprehensive repositioning plan last week and are making good progress in implementing this plan, as was recognized both by Standard & Poor's and Moody's in their reaffirmation of El Paso's solid investment-grade credit rating last week. There is no information with respect to the company's performance or credit that was not fully discussed as a part of the public presentations made by the company at that time.

"Dana was a member of the El Paso family for 25 years and was a personal friend. Dana was a tireless worker, a valued contributor, and will be missed both as a business associate and as a friend," Wise said. "Our hearts and prayers are with his wife and their family."

Houston police spokesman Joe Laud said Rice was found shot to death at his home at 1 p.m. Sunday. He lived near the intersection of Westheimer and Greenbriar.

"A man ... died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound," Laud said. Police would not comment if a suicide note was found.

Police would not say if anyone else was at home at the time, on the city's southwest side less than 5 miles from Rice's office downtown.

Friends and family declined to comment on Rice's death.

The Harris County medical examiner's office will conduct an autopsy.

Rice underwent major surgery last year, but no one would comment on whether he had a current medical condition that may have led to a suicide.

The Houston-based company is the latest energy company to come under fire in the Bayou City.

Houston-based El Paso announced last week it would eliminate about 300 jobs within its trading group, cut in half its investment in trading activities to $1 billion and divide the segment into three separate divisions. El Paso also said it would revamp its financial reporting so it is more simple and transparent.

Between 110 and 130 of the company's energy trading employees received their pink slips last Wednesday. A total of 600 employees work within El Paso's trading group.

Earlier this year, a former Enron Corp. Vice Chairman, J. Clifford Baxter, committed suicide as the scandal surrounding the bankrupt energy company widened.

Baxter was discovered dead in a Mercedes-Benz parked on a median not far from his home in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land early Jan. 25. He had been shot in the head. Authorities subsequently ruled the wound was self-inflicted.

Baxter resigned from Enron in May 2001, several months before the company collapsed. He later was named in a warning about questionable financial practices that another Enron executive sent in August to then-Enron Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth Lay.