Fluor Unit Buys 2 Coal Mines in West Virginia : Acquisition: Fluor stock drops on news of the $41-million purchase from Occidental Petroleum, which says the sale is part of its campaign to trim debt.

Fluor Corp. said Tuesday that its coal subsidiary has purchased two West Virginia coal mines from Occidental Petroleum Corp. for $41 million.

Fluor stock dropped $2 on the news to close at $43.63 per share on the New York Stock Exchange. Analysts said Fluor’s lead and coal subsidiaries have pulled down earnings but said the additional coal reserves would make the A.T. Massey Coal Co. more attractive if Fluor decides to sell it.

A.T. Massey, based in Richmond, Va., is acquiring two coal mines in Island Creek, W.Va., the Gund coal preparation plant in eastern Kentucky and undeveloped coal deposits and equipment from Island Creek Corp., the companies said. Island Creek is a Lexington, Ky., subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum.

Occidental said it was selling the mines as part of a $3-billion campaign to reduce debt.

The high-quality coal will be sold to utilities that must comply with new clean air standards taking effect in 1995, Fluor spokesman Rick Maslin said.

“It’s good, low-sulfur coal, which is going to do well when the Clean Air Act is implemented because high-sulfur coal is not going to be acceptable,” Maslin said. “We’re positioning ourselves here.”

The purchase adds 130 million tons to Massey’s coal reserves of 760 million tons. Massey is one of the 10 largest coal companies in the United States. Revenues fell from $866 million in 1990 to $758 million in 1991, but profits rose $700,000 to $60.7 million because of cost reductions.

Last year Fluor sold its iron ore subsidiary, Pea Ridge Iron Ore Co., for $12 million. Its lead production and recycling business, Doe Run Co. of St. Louis, has been hurt by a deep slump in lead prices.

“Shareholders have a hope that at some point Fluor will be able to shed itself of these businesses,” said Paul S. Kuklinski, an analyst at Cowen & Co. in Boston. “The market perhaps is perceiving the acquisition of these coal reserves as going in the opposite direction and interpreting that as a negative.”

But Kuklinski said that the outlook for Massey is “decent” and that the new properties would make it more salable.