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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.

The recent sale of one million shares of Tom Brown Inc. stock toan undisclosed investor garnered Lakewood, CO-based KN Energy about$29 million in cash and should help the company digest itsacquisition of Kinder Morgan Inc.

The recent sale of 1 million shares of Tom Brown Inc. stock toan undisclosed investor garnered Lakewood, CO-based KN Energy about$29 million in cash and should help the company digest itsacquisition of Kinder Morgan Inc.

Prosper Business Development Corp., a Columbus, OH-basedconsulting and marketing firm, released an addendum to a previousreport on deregulating energy markets yesterday, citing a new listof pitfalls in the changing energy environment. The report,”Accelerating Energy’s Challenge to Change,” is intended to enhanceenergy marketers’ profitability as they enter deregulating markets.

Transwestern will shutdown Station 1 (Kingman) for automationbeginning Sept. 1. The station should be back up Nov. 31. CurrentWest of Thoreau capacity is 950,000 MMBtu/d. This will be cut toabout 875,000 MMBtu/d during the outage.

Marketers considering whether to enter soon-to-be deregulatedelectricity and gas markets should re-evaluate strategies in lightof the experience of gas marketers in Georgia. Late entrystrategies may be very risky, according to an analysis of Georgia’sgas deregulation process by Atlanta-based Energy Market Solutions.

Reaching a 30 Tcf gas market will greatly benefit the nation’spower market, so it only makes sense that electric utilities shouldhelp the gas industry achieve that goal, said Thomas Kuhn,president of Edison Electric Institute (EEI). Kuhn, speakingyesterday at the Natural Gas Roundtable in Washington D.C., saidthe convergence between the industries has become such a force thatthe EEI, whose members generate and distribute roughlythree-fourths of the nation’s electricity, is planning to take amore active role in helping the gas industry meet its demand.

California energy regulators last week identified 10 items forpotential natural gas industry restructuring, most of which dealwith wholesale or large customer operations. State regulators alsoencouraged utilities and large customers to cease their bickeringand come up with a broad-based settlement on gas unbundling.

Houston skyline watchers should note Transco Tower will berenamed Williams Tower. “The tower is a Houston landmark thatsymbolizes stability and innovation, two qualities that accuratelydefine our business at Williams,” said Cuba Wadlington Jr., generalmanager of Williams’ Transco pipeline system. Williams merged withTransco Energy Co. in 1995 and moved to the tower. Then, WilliamsCommunications Solutions, formerly known as WilTel, moved itsheadquarters there in August 1995. Today, Williams houses itsnational technical resource center at the tower and occupies 39floors. The tower is 64 stories tall and was built in 1982. It isthe tallest building in the United States located outside of adowntown area.