COURT BLOCKS INJUNCTION SOUGHT AGAINST COASTAL
A U.S. Bankruptcy Judge ruled that
<TransAmerican Natural Gas Corp> can not seek an injunction in
Texas State court to block Coastal Corp <CGP> from presenting a
plan of reorganization in TransAmerican's bankruptcy
proceeding.
    However, U.S. bankruptcy judge Manuel Leal also ruled that
TransAmerican could pursue its two billion dlr lawsuit against
Coastal that alleges the Houston based gas company is
attempting to unlawfully gain control of Transamerican's Texas
gas reserve and pipeline system.
    Leal told both Coastal and TransAmerican that he plans to
maintain jurisdiction over TransAmerican's bankruptcy
reorganization proceedings that began in 1983.
    After the hearing, John Nabors, a lawyer for TransAmerican,
said the company would pursue its state court lawsuit seeking
2.0 billion dlrs in damages from Coastal.
    Nabors contends that Coastal has unlawfully attempted to
replace TransAmerican's negotiated reorganization plan paying
secured creditors in full with a plan of its own.
    "They're not going to pay any money under their plan,
they're just going to operate (the gas wells) and give profit
to the creditors," Nabors said.
    He said Coastal's plan, which has not yet been submitted to
the Bankruptcy Court, offered to pay creditors 50 mln dlrs
annually for seven years.
    TransAmerican's plan would repay a total of 770 mln dlrs in
debts to secured creditors and the equivalent of 30 cts on the
dollar to unsecured creditors.
     A Coastal unit is among Transamerican's unsecured
creditors and is owed about 600,000 dlrs.
    Transamerican said it is the second largest producer of
natural gas in Texas with reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic feet
and more than 1,000 miles of pipeline and gas gathering lines.
    Coastal, one of the nation's largest gas producers, earned
71.6 mln dlrs on sales of 6.7 billion dlrs in 1986.
 Reuter
