Bob Tippee
Editor

Oil and gas companies have reason to welcome but be wary of the latest report of an oil-price investigation.

Most such probes start in Congress, focus on operating companies that sell gasoline, and find nothing.

The one lately in the news started at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, targets traders, and remains under way.

There's a difference between operating companies and traders, although some traders work for operating companies. The oil industry should hope these distinctions stay clear.

The CFTC on May 29 unveiled an investigation begun last December into "the purchase, transportation, storage, and trading of crude oil and related derivative products."

It called disclosure of a continuing investigation "an extraordinary step," taken "because of today's unprecedented market conditions."

The step also might have something to do with pressure from Congress. On May 27 Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, asked CFTC to examine commodity trading on foreign exchanges and challenged its assertions discounting speculation as a factor in oil-price elevation (OGJ Online, May 28, 2008).