Our politicians insist that these things don’t happen, so it must be false. Right?
BP and Shell have been forced on the defensive by new allegations of price-rigging made in a US lawsuit brought by four oil traders.
The two companies, along with others involved with the oil market, are alleged to have attempted to rig the spot price for Brent crude oil on multiple occasions in the last decade. The court documents list several alleged incidents in which the accusers claim the market price could have been manipulated.
BP and Shell both said they had no comment on the allegations.
One oil industry insider said fixing the price of Brent crude, an important benchmark oil price based on North Sea production, was unlikely because of the competitive nature of spot trading in the oil market. Other insiders dismissed the claims as “four traders trying their luck” and as “frivolous”.
Though the cases are not linked, the new suit may have been encouraged by the current European commission investigation into alleged energy market price fixing, and by a whistleblower’s claims, in the Guardian, that price-fixing was rife in UK gas markets.
Other companies named in the US lawsuit include Morgan Stanley, the investment bank; the trader Vitol Group; and Trafigura, the oil and metals trader that illegally exported toxic waste which was then dumped by a contractor in Africa. All three declined to comment.
