CFTC Fines Norway's Statoil, Citing Market Manipulation
15 November 2017 - 05:47AM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah Kent
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Tuesday that
it fined Norway's Statoil ASA $4 million for attempting to
manipulate energy markets in 2011.
The state-backed oil giant tried to influence the price of a key
benchmark for propane between October and November 2011 to benefit
its market positions after it saw significant losses in its
gas-liquids unit that year, the CFTC said.
The regulator said the company tried to prop up the price of the
Argus Far East Index, which is used to price propane in the
Asia-Pacific region, when it became clear the market wasn't moving
in the direction traders had expected. The moves were intended to
benefit Statoil's positions held in swaps cleared through the New
York Mercantile Exchange.
Statoil didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The CFTC said it discovered the attempted manipulation through
emails sent by Statoil traders.
Many of the world's biggest oil producers also trade significant
volumes of oil, natural gas and related products in both physical
and paper markets. That's prompted periodic complaints that they
have an outsize influence on markets and prices, but policing the
sector has proved challenging.
In 2013, European Commission officials raided the offices of
Statoil and rivals Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BP PLC, looking for
evidence of manipulation of the oil-price benchmark going back as
far as 2002. The probe closed in 2015 without action.
"Statoil has, since the inspection in May 2013, maintained that
the company has not participated in any form of price
manipulation," the company said then.
Write to Sarah Kent at sarah.kent@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 14, 2017 13:32 ET (18:32 GMT)
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