Probe Over BP Gas Trades
U.S. regulators are investigating the October 2002 trades of British oil company BP and are recommending that civil action be brought against the company. BP also faces charges from the Commodity Futures Trade Commission that it manipulated the U.S. propane market in 2004. BP said in a financial document that "the CFTC Staff notified BP on November 21, 2006, that they intend to recommend to the CFTC that a civil enforcement action be brought against BP Corporation North America, Inc. ... in connection with its trading of unleaded gasoline futures contracts on October 31, 2002."
Regulators have been investigating BP's crude oil trading and storage activities in the United States since 2003. The crude oil probe primarily looked at possible manipulation of the global over-the counter market in 2003 and 2004. A BP spokesman said there was no wrongdoing in the 2002 trades. Scott Dean, a BP spokesman, said that "we have reviewed the facts related to this single day of trading four years ago and we are confident that manipulation was not attempted, did not occur, and no laws were broken by our people."
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