Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

Under terms of a consent order, Magellan completed its acquisition of pipelines and terminals in the Midwestern United States and a refined petroleum products terminal in Oklahoma City that supplies light petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel fuel from the Shell Oil Company. The consent order required Magellan to divest the Shell Oklahoma City terminal to a Commission-approved buyer within six months after the transaction is consummated.

A consent order settled charges that the White Sands Health Care System refused to deal with health care insurers that resisted the collectively negotiated prices set by its member physicians and nurse anesthetists. The complaint alleged that these practices increased costs for health care for consumers in the Alamogordo, New Mexico area. White Sands, a physician-hospital organization, consists of Alamogordo Physicians, an independent practice association; Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center, and 31 nonphysician health care providers, including all five nurse anesthetists in the area.

The consent order permitted Valero L.P. to acquire Kaneb Services LLC and Kaneb Pipe Line Partners subject to the divestitures of assets that will preserve existing competition for petroleum transportation and terminaling in Northern California, Pennsylvania, and Colorado, and avoid a potential increase in bulk gasoline and diesel prices. The order also requires Valero to develop an information firewall and maintain open, non-discriminatory access to two retained Northern California terminals, in order to ensure access to ethanol terminaling in Northern California.

The Commission authorized staff, in conjunction with the Hawaii Attorney General, to seek a preliminary injunction to block Aloha Petroleum’s proposed acquisition of Trustreet Properties. Aloha sought to acquire Trustreet’s half interest in the Barber Point petroleum importing terminal, when Aloha already owned the other half interest. The proposed acquisition would have reduced the number of marketers with ownership or access to a refinery or importing terminal from five to four, and the number of suppliers selling to unintegrated retailers from three to two. After Aloha subsequently announced a long-term agreement with a third party, Mid-Pac Petroleum that would enable Mid-Pac to replace Trustreet as a bulk gasoline supplier, the Commission sought to dismiss its federal court complaint on the ground of changed circumstances.