ENERGY

Texaco Faces $404 Million in Damages: A Utah jury has ordered Texaco Inc. to pay punitive and compensatory damages to Gold Standard Inc. over the oil giant’s 1985 sale of a joint venture set up by the mining company and Getty Oil, Texaco said. Texaco said it plans to challenge the verdict, which was handed down in the Third Judicial District Court in Tooele County, Utah. The case, brought against Texaco by Gold Standard, centers on a joint gold mining and milling venture in Tooele and Utah counties that Gold Standard established with Getty Oil before Texaco bought Getty in 1984. Texaco said it sold both Getty’s stake and Gold Standard’s in 1985, and Gold Standard sued. Getty held 75% of the venture and controlled Gold Standard’s stake up to the time of the sale, a Texaco spokesman said. But Gold Standard claimed Texaco did not have the right to sell its 25%.