That was the major obstacle in the bill for gasoline refiners.

But Tenneco Inc. and Phillips Petroleum are building plants to produce more than 10,000 barrels a day and plan to sell much of the output to other gasoline refiners.

Southland's other businesses are dairies, snack-food manufacturing, a chain of 465 auto-parts stores, and a 50 percent interest in Citgo Petroleum, a gasoline refiner and marketer.

Additionally, several record keeping and reporting requirements for gasoline refiners and importers have been lifted.

The three men falsified test results for a type of clean-burning gasoline so that one of their customers, a gasoline refiner, could sell the fuel, the Federal prosecutors said.

Chevron, Hawaii's biggest gasoline refiner and marketer, brought a lawsuit arguing that the rent cap violated due process, equal protection and amounted to an unconstitutional taking.

The effect for most of the nation's gasoline refiners, which have seen higher costs in producing reformulated gasoline, is that they will keep running near capacity all summer to meet demand and build inventories.

Western Refining, a gasoline refiner in El Paso, is purchasing Giant Industries, a larger refiner, for $1.5 billion in cash, people close to the deal said yesterday.

The proposed legislation would be directed at large gasoline refiners and distributors.

The credit offset exists to balance tax incentives available to gasoline refiners for every gallon of ethanol they use, including Brazilian.