News In Brief

Pennzoil sues to force Getty to honor agreement

The Pennzoil Company, which lost out to Texaco in the multibillion-dollar merger battle for the Getty Oil Company, filed a lawsuit Tuesday to require Getty to honor its previous merger agreement with Pennzoil.

The agreement had granted Pennzoil the option to purchase 8 million Getty shares at $110 a share. In a countermove, Getty went to court seeking to have the Pennzoil merger proposal declared invalid and charged that Pennzoil was trying ''to interfere with, obstruct, and delay the Texaco transation.