ENERGY

Columbia Gas, Subsidiary Offer Reorganization Plans: Columbia Gas System Inc. of Wilmington, Del., and its main pipeline subsidiary filed plans that offer their natural gas suppliers less than a tenth of what the suppliers are seeking in federal Bankruptcy Court. The companies, in Chapter 11 bankruptcy since 1991, when the market price of natural gas dropped sharply, proposed paying creditors about $7.5 billion--but they offered only $1.2 billion to gas suppliers, who are seeking about $13 billion from contracts voided by the court. The parent company, acting on the deadline for filing an amended plan of reorganization, proposed paying about $3.6 billion to creditors, including $2.3 billion to pay pre-petition debt and $1.1 billion of interest on that debt.