Ruled

Chevron announced last week it has filed a petition asking theU.S. Supreme Court to hear a $742 million breach-of-contract casefirst brought against Gulf Oil Co. in 1982 by Cities Service Co.,which was bought by Occidental in 1984. Dawn Soper, a Chevronspokesperson, said it is now up to the court to rule on thepetition.

Chevron announced it has filed a petition asking the U.S.Supreme Court to hear a $742 million breach-of-contract case firstbrought upon Gulf Oil Co. in 1982 by Cities Service Co., which wasbought by Occidental in 1984. Dawn Soper, a Chevron spokesperson,said it is now up to the court to rule on the petition.

While in the longer term PacifiCorp’s merger partner has notruled out possible expansions into natural gas, water and eventelecommunications, ScottishPower PLC first plans to followPacifiCorp’s renewed focus on its vertically integrated electricitybusiness in the Western U.S. The $12.8 billion merger, includingdebt assumption, which was announced early last week, still mustpass U.S. state and federal regulators, along with Australianauthorities, however.

FERC yesterday ruled that Koch Gateway Pipeline failed to meetthe burden of proof in its request for market-based rate fortransportation services, causing it to reverse a 1997 initialdecision by an administrative law judge.

Natural gas producers scored a victory Wednesday when FERC ruledthey could post surety bonds in lieu of multi-million dollarrefunds to customers that fast coming due on March 9th. The bondmethod guarantees that customers will receive their refundpayments, and it gives producers what they seek most – a delay inpaying out the amounts until disputes over the refunds calculationsare resolved. The downside of this option is that producers will berequired to continue paying interest on the refund principal aslong as the bond remains in effect. Producers also have thealternative of paying their refund amounts into escrow accounts.