“Not with a bang, but a whimper”…the $7.5 billion lawsuitfiled by TransAmerican Natural Gas against merging giants CoastalCorp. and El Paso Natural Gas, slid to a quiet grave under a sealedsettlement agreement.

The trial of the two companies and Oscar Wyatt Jr., founder ofCoastal, and El Paso Energy CEO William Wise lasted just one weekbefore the parties came to an agreement. Terms of that agreementwere not disclosed, but an El Paso spokeswoman said it would have”no significant impact” on the finances of either of the companies.”We’re delighted to have this behind us and over and done with,forever. We thought it had been settled a long time ago.”

TransAmerican and Jack Stanley, its chairman and founder, hadaccused the two companies and their executives of conspiring tocomplete the financial destruction of TransAmerican, which wasattempting to reorganize itself out of bankruptcy at the time. Thealleged conspiracy occurred in 1988 and the case was filed in 1993.Interestingly, the trial started the same week El Paso and Coastalshareholders were to vote on their $16 billion merger. Shareholdersoverwhelmingly approved the merger. (See Daily GPI, May 5 & May8)

The suit alleged the defendants conspired to undermineTransAmerican’s ability to continue prosecuting and collecting a$500 million take or pay judgment it had won against El Paso. ElPaso settled that judgment in 1989 for $300 million. Stanley hadbeen a longtime rival of Wyatt, going back to the early days of oiland gas development in Texas.

©Copyright 2000 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.