The FTC approved Oxy’s merger with Midcon.

The proposed $3-billion merger was approved by the Federal Trade Commission on condition that Occidental Petroleum, within a year, shed a wholly owned Midcon subsidiary, Mississippi River Transmission Co. The merger will create the nation’s 12th-largest industrial concern. Mississippi River Transmission, which operates a pipeline from the Gulf Coast to St. Louis, has about 2,000 of Midcon’s 30,000 miles of pipeline and handles about 7% of the natural gas carried by Lombard, Ill.-based Midcon.