(Bloomberg) -- Federal energy regulators are accusing Total

SA of rigging natural gas markets as recently as three years

ago.

     Traders at Total’s Houston-based subsidiary Total Gas &

Power, North America, Inc., executed a scheme to manipulate the

price of natural gas in the southwest U.S. between June 2009 and

June 2012, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s

enforcement division said in a notice issued Monday.

     “Staff alleges that the scheme involved making largely

uneconomic trades for physical natural gas during bidweek

designed to move indexed market prices in a way that benefited

the company’s related positions,” the notice showed.

     “TGPNA is fully cooperating with the FERC and has provided

all of the documents requested,” Paris-based Total said in an

e-mailed statement. “In light of these documents, we are

convinced that TGPNA and its employees have not committed any of

the FERC’s allegations.”