[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 35 (Monday, February 23, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8978-8979]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-4500]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Office of Hearing and Appeals


Notice of Issuance of Decisions and Orders by the Office of 
Hearings and Appeals; Week of November 3 Through November 7, 1997

    During the week of November 3 through November 7, 1997, the 
decisions and orders summarized below were issued with respect to 
appeals, applications, petitions, or other requests filed with the 
Office of Hearings and Appeals of the Department of Energy. The 
following summary also contains a list of submissions that were 
dismissed by the Office of Hearings and Appeals.
    Copies of the full text of these decisions and orders are available 
in the Public Reference Room of the Office of Hearings and Appeals, 
Room 1E-234, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW, 
Washington, D.C. 20585-0107, Monday through Friday, between the hours 
of 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., except federal holidays. They are also 
available in Energy Management: Federal Energy Guidelines, a 
commercially published loose leaf reporter system. Some decisions and 
orders are available on the Office of Hearings and Appeals World Wide 
Web site at http://www.oha.doe.gov.

    Dated: February 11, 1998.
George B. Breznay,
Director, Office of Hearings and Appeals.

Decision List No. 58; Week of November 3 through November 7, 1997

Appeals

Convergence Research, 11/7/97, [VFA-0340]

    Convergence Research (CR) appealed a determination by the 
Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) that denied in part a request for 
information that it filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). 
The DOE found that a likelihood of significant competitive harm would 
result from release of the requested information and that, therefore, 
BPA properly withheld the information under Exemption 5. Consequently, 
CR's Appeal was denied.
The Oregonian, 11/3/97, [VFA-0336]

    The Oregonian appealed a determination by the Bonneville Power 
Administration (BPA) that denied in part a request for information the 
newspaper filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The DOE 
found that a likelihood of significant competitive harm would result 
from release of the requested information and that, therefore, BPA 
properly withheld the information under Exemption 5. Consequently, the 
Appeal filed by The Oregonian was denied.

Refund Applications

Eason Oil Co./Koch Hydrocarbon Co., 11/7/97, [RF352-2]

    The DOE granted in part an application for refund submitted by Koch 
Hydrocarbon Co. (KHC) in the Eason Oil Co. (Eason) special refund 
proceeding. The DOE found that KHC purchased a mixed stream of NGLs 
from Eason, which it fractionated into propane, butane and natural 
gasoline and resold to third parties. KHC's NGL purchases from Eason 
were not discretionary in nature, and were dictated by KHC's 
requirements for its fractionation and marketing activities. For the 
period November 1973 through December 1979, the DOE found that KHC had 
demonstrated that the prices it paid to Eason for butane resulted in 
some economic injury to KHC. However, the DOE found that KHC's 
competitive disadvantage analysis failed to establish that KHC suffered 
the type of substantial and consistent competitive disadvantage that 
would qualify the firm for 100% of its allocable share of the refund. 
Accordingly, the DOE granted KHC a refund based on 79.5 percent of its 
allocable share.

Gulf Oil Corp./Ryder Energy Distributing, 11/3/97, [RR300-261]

    The DOE denied a motion for reconsideration filed by the Ryder 
Energy Distributing in the Gulf refund proceeding. The DOE had 
previously granted Ryder a $36,637 refund based on the medium range 
presumption of injury applicable to resellers. In considering the 
motion, the DOE found that Ryder Energy failed to demonstrate that it 
was entitled to the end-user presumption of injury for any of its Gulf 
purchases.
Star-Kist Foods, Inc., 11/6/97, [RR272-148]

    The DOE granted a Motion for Reconsideration filed by Star-Kist 
Foods, Inc. The DOE found that the company had acted in a timely 
fashion

[[Page 8979]]

when it corrected the deficiency which had caused the DOE to dismiss 
Star-Kist's Application for Refund, and DOE determined that Star-Kist 
should receive a refund.

TMBR/Sharp Drilling, Inc. Tom Brown, Inc, Tom Brown, Inc., 11/3/97, 
[RF272-98766; RC272-00375; RJ272-00050]

    TMBR/Sharp Drilling, Inc. (TMBR) filed an Application for Refund in 
the crude oil refund proceeding. Another company, Tom Brown, Inc. 
(TBI), from which TMBR had been spun off, had earlier received a refund 
for the same purchases for which TMBR was entitled to a refund. The DOE 
rescinded the portions of TBI's original and supplemental refunds 
pertaining to purchases made by its drilling division, which became 
TMBR. Moreover, the DOE accepted TBI's estimates of its drilling 
division's purchases instead of TMBR's, because TBI's records were 
based on records contemporaneous to the refund period, as opposed to 
TMBR's estimates, which were based on current records. Accordingly, 
TMBR was granted a refund and TBI's refunds were reduced.

Refund Applications

    The Office of Hearings and Appeals issued the following Decisions 
and Orders concerning refund applications, which are not summarized. 
Copies of the full texts of the Decisions and Orders are available in 
the Public Reference Room of the Office of Hearings and Appeals.

Crude Oil Supple Refund..................................  RB272-00124                                   11/7/97
Gulf Oil Corporation/Monarch Oil Co., Inc................  RF300-21676                                   11/3/97
Gulf Oil Corporation/Texas City Refining, Inc............  RF300-14009                                   11/6/97
Shell Oil Co./Merbert M. Hsu.............................  RF315-10287                                   11/4/97
                                                                                                                

Dismissals

    The following submissions were dismissed.

                                                                        
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                     Name                               Case No.        
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Nash Finch Co................................  RK272-04629              
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[FR Doc. 98-4500 Filed 2-20-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P