US regulator tells BP it has closed energy price-fixing probe

[LONDON] BP said on Tuesday it was told by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) it was closing its probe into anticompetitive practices in oil price reporting and assessment, but other regulators were still investigating.

European Commission officials in May 2013 raided the offices of oil majors BP, Shell and Statoil as part of a probe into suspected manipulation of oil and biofuel prices.

A BP spokesman said the FTC decided to close the investigation against the British oil major with no charges or fines.

BP said that "related inquiries and requests for information have also been received from US and other regulators following the European Commission's actions, including from the Japanese Fair Trade Commission, the Korean Fair Trade Commission, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission)."

"On October 1, 2014, BP was informed by the FTC that it was closing its investigation. The other investigations remain open and there is no deadline for the completion of the inquiries,"BP said in its third-quarter earnings results.

The Commission said it was investigating the companies in relation to their submission of prices to Platts, the world's leading oil pricing agency and part of McGraw Hill Financial Inc , whose offices were also raided last year.

Earlier this month, the European Commission, which acts as the competition watchdog in the 28-member bloc, raided ethanol companies in two EU countries as part of the probe.

REUTERS