El Paso

El Paso Corp., the biggest U.S. natural-gas pipeline company, won a reversal of a $122.5- million jury verdict awarded in 2000 to three workers who were burned in a 1999 explosion at a Coastal Refining & Marketing Inc. plant. Accident victims Daniel Torres, William Bourland and David Natividad claimed Coastal Refining's parent, Coastal Corp., acquired by El Paso in 2001, was liable because the parent had budgetary authority over safety and maintenance at the subsidiary. Coastal appealed.

Heavy rain flooded roads in the El Paso area as the rapidly weakening remnants of Hurricane John spread across the border from Mexico. A half-mile section of Interstate 10 near downtown was closed by water, police spokesman Javier Sambrano said.

Nevada's attorney general has sued Houston-based El Paso Corp. and San Diego-based Sempra Energy, accusing the companies of conspiring with Enron Corp. and others to squeeze natural gas supplies to Nevada and California during the energy crisis of 2000-01 to inflate energy prices.

The Times missed one major twist in "El Paso Case Full of Twists and Turns," Oct. 22. At the height of the California natural-gas price crunch, El Paso Corp. blamed the entire problem on California by claiming a lack of capacity within the state to handle any more gas. After claiming that reduced shipments were caused by safety considerations and not by any capacity problems in California, El Paso and its executives have now admitted that they lied to California in 2000. El Paso clearly had a major role in triggering the gas and electricity price crisis in California, and the only remaining question is how much of the company will be given to California to pay for its misdeeds.

Craig Yacks and Bisser Georgiev both scored twice as the El Paso Patriots defeated the Waves, 6-2, Friday at Santa Ana Stadium. El Paso midfielder Martin Arrieta scored 10 minutes into the game. Yacks scored in the 33rd minute, and assisted on Georgiev's first goal less than a minute later. Yacks made the score 4-1 in the 54th. Kirk Wilson and Georgiev capped El Paso's scoring late in the second half.

El Paso Corp. saw its woes mount Tuesday when a shareholder called for the ouster of its board of directors, a move that could slow down the struggling utility's plans to get its house in order. "Along with the company's thousands of employees and stockholders who rely on El Paso, I can no longer watch passively as the value of the company continues to decline," Selim Zilkha, wrote in a letter to the board. Zilkha owns about 8.9 million El Paso shares, or about a 1.5% stake in the company.

Gov. Gray Davis said Tuesday that he preferred to reach a settlement with El Paso Corp. before regulators rule on whether the nation's largest natural gas pipeline operator held back billions of dollars worth of supplies during the state's energy crisis. Industry analysts have said a settlement would be in the best interests of El Paso, which has been hit hard by a downturn in energy trading, and Davis, whose political popularity has eroded in recent months.

El Paso Corp., the largest U.S. owner of natural-gas pipelines, slashed its profit forecast for the second time since May and said the business has enough cash to avoid a dividend cut during an energy-trading slump. The Houston company said its second-quarter loss narrowed to $45 million, or 8 cents a share, from $93 million, or 18 cents, a year earlier. Revenue fell 20%, to $2.99 billion from $3.76 billion. El Paso shares rose 14 cents to $14.89 on the NYSE.

El Paso Corp. won Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval to boost the capacity of its line to California by 7.1% to meet rising fuel demand in the state and the Southwest. The $173-million project is scheduled to be completed in two years. The project would increase shipping capacity by 320,000 million cubic feet per day, enough for about 1.3 million average U.S. homes. El Paso shares rose 64 cents to $9.64 on the New York Stock Exchange.

El Paso Corp., the largest owner of U.S. natural-gas pipelines, had its fourth straight quarterly loss after writing down the value of assets that have been sold, including a power plant and a New Jersey oil refinery. The net loss in the first quarter was $394 million, or 66 cents a share, compared with net income of $383 million, or 72 cents, a year earlier, the company said. Revenue rose 6.7% to $4.02 billion. El Paso's stock fell 16 cents to $7.50 on the NYSE. From Bloomberg News