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Troubled telecom company Avaya Inc. has begun cutting off some pension benefits for retirees, a signal that these benefits may be on the chopping block in connection with its chapter 11 case, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In a letter to retirees, the communications company cited its recent chapter 11 filing to say that as of Feb. 1, it would stop paying so-called supplemental pension benefits to certain retirees until further notice. Some retirees recently received notice that March checks also wouldn’t arrive. An Avaya spokesman said the company continues to pay federally guaranteed pension payments but doesn’t “have the court’s authority to make supplemental pension payments…at this point in time.” He declined to elaborate on Avaya’s plans for these benefits, which are among the liabilities that companies often shed in bankruptcy.

Chaparral Energy Inc. aims to have its bankruptcy exit plan confirmed next month, which may require suing a co-owner of a carbon dioxide pipeline to advance the sale of the asset, the bankrupt oil and gas producer said in court papers on Friday, Reuters reported. Chaparral has a hearing on March 9 to confirm its plan to emerge from chapter 11 bankruptcy, funded in part by asset sales. The company filed for bankruptcy in May after talks with stakeholders failed to produce a restructuring support agreement to tackle its financial troubles. Chaparral said that it no longer needed the pipeline in Oklahoma running from a Koch Fertilizer LLC fertilizer plant. It transports carbon dioxide used in "flooding" fields to help extract oil and gas from depleted wells. Chaparral and Merit Energy Co. together own more than 90 percent of the pipeline. Under an agreement, Merit bought CO2 from the Koch plant and set aside a portion for Chaparral's use. Their deal expired in December and talks to renew it failed, Chaparral said, adding that talks to acquire CO2 directly from Koch had also failed. Read more.

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