(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.”