Are Russian oil prices being rigged?

IN 2012, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) grabbed international attention by investigating the manipulation of Libor, Euribor, and other interest-rate benchmarks. By 2015, the CFTC had fined six financial intermediaries a total of US$2.7 billion for “similar misconduct relating to foreign exchange benchmarks”, and a whistleblower was awarded US$200 million for helping to break open these cases.

Now, the CFTC should turn its enforcement efforts to the reporting and potential manipulation of global oil prices.

The specific issue that is attracting attention concerns the price paid for Russian crude oil and refined products. The G7, the European Union, and their allies have imposed a price cap of US$60 per barrel on crude transported by tanker, together with roughly equivalent caps for diesel, fuel oil, and other oil derivatives.