ENERGY

Shell, Texaco in Settlement With EPA: Divisions of Shell Oil Co. and Texaco Inc. agreed to pay civil penalties of $337,703 and $350,000, respectively, to settle federal complaints of environmental offenses in California. The agreements, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency, involve Shell Western E&P; Inc.’s Belridge oil field in Kern County and Texaco Refining and Marketing Inc.’s Bakersfield refinery. In Texaco’s case, the EPA claimed the refinery disposed of hazardous wastes by discharging selenium-contaminated water into an underground injection well. And the EPA said Shell Western repeatedly vented volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, from two of its dehydration plants directly into the air between March, 1988, and March, 1993, in violation of its permit. No immediate comment was available from either company.