Oxy Set to Sell Natural Gas as Alternative Fuel : Energy: Its MidCon pipeline subsidiary buys a one-third stake in a Texas firm that has built service stations. Occidental has extensive gas reserves.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. has taken a first step toward building service stations to sell natural gas as an alternative vehicle fuel.

MidCon Corp., the natural gas pipeline subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp., has bought a one-third stake in American Natural Gas Power Inc., a Texas company that trains people to service natural gas vehicles and that has built several service stations. One, built for Shell Oil Co., opened in Houston in August.

“This is the first move we’ve made into the natural-gas vehicle business,” said Patricia Wees, a MidCon spokeswoman. “We’ve got one toe in the water; we’re not taking the high dive.” Wees characterized MidCon’s investment as modest.

A few other oil and gas companies, including Los Angeles-based Unocal Corp. and Amoco Corp., headquartered in Chicago, have opened natural gas service stations for the public.

But so far, most have been built for government or private company fleets.

In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Occidental noted that besides the investment in American Natural Gas it is considering “constructing, owning and operating CNG (compressed natural gas) service stations which will sell CNG to motor vehicles.”

Occidental owns an extensive network of natural gas pipelines and U.S. natural gas reserves, which totaled 2.25 trillion cubic feet in 1991.

Occidental also announced Wednesday that Occidental Chemical Corp., a subsidiary, will buy the chlorinated isocyanurate business of Monsanto Co. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

The acquisition expands Oxy’s position as the leading U.S. marketer of chlorine and caustic soda and makes it the world’s largest producer of products used in household, industrial and swimming pool disinfectants.