Two new defendants, Mercuria Energy Trading SA and Hess Energy Trading Co, have been added to a lawsuit accusing BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and several other companies of conspiring to manipulate Brent crude oil prices. In an amended complaint filed late Monday night in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where 14 lawsuits have been combined, the defendants were accused of having monopolized and conspired since 2002 to fix the Brent crude market.The plaintiffs, including several individuals and firms that traded the oil, accused the defendants of deliberately reporting inaccurate or false prices, "spoof" orders and transactions with "aberrant" pricing, as well as conducting illegal "wash sales" designed to affect prices without exposing participants to market risk.Brent crude is a North Sea oil benchmark used for roughly two-thirds of the world's internationally traded crude oil supplies, and is used to set prices for such things as gasoline and heating oil.Mercuria is a unit of Switzerland-based Mercuria Energy Group Ltd, which agreed on March 19 to purchase JPMorgan Chase & Co's physical commodities business for $3.5 billion.
BP p.l.c. (BP), is an integrated oil and gas company. Shares of BP traded higher by 2.55% or $1.25/share to $50.29. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $40.51 and as high as $51.02. On average, 5185040 shares of BP exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 7620778.
Shares of RDS-B traded higher by 1.15% or $0.93/share to $81.77. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $65.02 and as high as $81.00. On average, 730772 shares of RDS-B exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 750171.
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