European anti-trust investigators searched the offices of price agency Platts and at least one major oil company for a third day yesterday.
Reuters reports authorities raided the London bureau of Platts in Canary Wharf and the offices of Statoil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP on Tuesday in the biggest trading probe since the Libor scandal.
At issue is whether there was collusion to distort prices of crude, refined oil products and ethanol traded during the Platts market-on-close (MOC) system – a daily half-hour “window” in which it sets prices.
Reuters said it had spoken to staff at Platts, where reportedly a team of inspectors is gathering evidence from laptops, with one member of staff saying: “We are all in the dark about it. The investigators will likely be here all week.
“We have all been told explicitly not to speak to anyone about it.”
Platts continues to operate business as normal, traders have said.
Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said it had not yet decided whether to “accept this matter as a criminal investigation”.
A spokesman for the SFO said: “Subject to discussions with other agencies, it is likely that the SFO could be the appropriate authority to investigate allegations of price fixing.”
The European Commission is also examining whether companies were prevented from taking part in the price assessment process.
Earlier this week, a Hungarian ethanol producer was the first company to identify itself as having complained to the European Commission about a Platts procedure that vets companies before they are permitted to participate in its price setting mechanism.
Pannonia Ethanol said it approached Platts last spring to gain access to contribute to the market-on-close window.
It said Platts refused to give the company access, citing “editorial discretion”.
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