February 19, 1983

The Reagan Administration and a key House subcommittee chairman reached agreement tonight on procedures to allow subcommittee members to see subpoenaed Environmental Protection Agency documents. Representative Elliott H. Levitas, Democrat of Georgia, the chairman of the subcommittee, said that if the Administration abided by the agreement, he would eventually ask the House to vote to drop its Dec. 16 citation of Anne M. Gorsuch, the E.P.A. chief, for contempt of Congress. On President Reagan's orders, she had refused to surrender documents on which he claimed executive privilege. Other Disputes Continuing While the agreement with the Levitas subcommittee, which had subpoenaed the documents, seems likely to resolve the first contempt of Congress citation against an executive branch official in the nation's history, it does not end the disputes between the Administration and other House subcommittees that have subpeonaed E.P.A. documents. At least one subcommittee is demanding more complete possession of the documents than the Administration agreed to tonight, and it is threatening new contempt proceedings if the Administration refuses the demand.

Two Libyan MIG-23 fighter planes were chased away from the carrier Nimitz this week by the ship's F-14's, Reagan Administration officials said today. The incident occurred as the Nimitz, which carries about 90 planes, was moving in the eastern Mediterranean near Libya. An Administration official said, ''It was not unusual to have aircraft from unfriendly nations see how close they can get to our carriers,'' adding, ''The Russians do it all the time.'' Word of the incident came as a delegation of Pentagon officials arrived in Cairo amid continued tensions in the region over Libya's military activities. The Administration has sent Awacs surveillance planes to Egypt because of worries about Libyan military threats against the Sudan, which angrily criticized Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, today.

A gallery substantially larger than the biggest floor of the Whitney Museum of American Art will open next fall in the new International Business Machines Corporation headquarters at Madison Avenue and 57th Street. The corporation is creating a gallery to be used for major traveling shows, not just in art but in science and technology, that would not otherwise come to New York. The existence of such a large exhibition area - 13,000 square feet - under the aegis of I.B.M. has raised fears that the corporation could outbid New York museums for large traveling shows and, more importantly, drain money and energy from I.B.M.'s heretofore generous support of museum exhibitions around the country. 'No Impact on Funding' ''The gallery is going to have no impact on our funding of cultural programs,'' said William Whalley, a spokesman for the corporation.

Around the country a cloud of gloom hangs over the general agricultural economy, but a close examination reveals a picture with many bright spots among the shadows and many shades of gray. Often, farmers thrive alongside others who are teetering on the edge of disaster and still others who are merely getting by. That is the picture emerging from visits with farmers in this area, talks with others throughout the nation and interviews with country bankers, Government officials and agricultural economists. Over all, farms are in the worst economic condition since the 1930's. Total farm income was more than a third lower last year than it was as recently as 1979. Thousands of farmers have gone into bankruptcy and thousands of others have been forced to leave the land to earn a living. But some farmers are profiting handsomely.

The state-owned British National Oil Corporation today proposed to its customers a $3-a-barrel cut in the price of North Sea crude oil. Norway quickly matched the cut, and rumors swirled that some OPEC producers were poised for similar actions. The anticipated price cut, which follows earlier reductions by the Soviet Union, Egypt, and others, was marginally less than earlier market predictions of between $3.50 and $4 a barrel.. But ever since Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, predicted the North Sea action after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to agree last month on a pricing policy, analysts have awaited the development as a major test of OPEC's ability to keep a downward adjustment of prices from accelerating into a free-for-all. Small Impact on Consumers The North Sea price reductions, by themselves, are expected to have little impact on retail gasoline prices in the United States, but if they are followed by other major producing countries, a continued decline in consumer prices is regarded as certain. Analysts generally calculate that gasoline prices fall 2 1/2 cents a gallon for every $1-a-barrel cut in the price of crude oil. (Page 39.)