The U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York on Tuesday approved a partial settlement between independent oil and natural gas producer Rosetta Resources Inc. and Chapter 11-bound Calpine Corp. On the same day, Rosetta asked the court to dismiss Calpine’s unsettled allegations of fraudulent actions by the producer (see Daily GPI, Sept. 12).

The court formally approved an Aug. 3 partial transfer and release agreement, which binds Calpine to “firmly place legal title in Rosetta’s name” back to the date of the original transaction in 2005, covering a number of oil and gas properties that the independent power plant developer and operator had conveyed or agreed to convey, but which still had ongoing title issues.

Rosetta said the court’s latest action does not impact the other pending issues between the two companies.

Court approval covered the Calpine-Rosetta agreement on four outstanding claims:

“This partial settlement as now approved represents a positive step forward for our company as it resolves certain title issues on properties, included in the original transaction,” said Rosetta CEO Charles Chambers. “However, this partial settlement does not resolve any of the issues raised by Calpine in its fraudulent conveyance claim, which remains pending.”

©Copyright 2007Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.