U.S. FERC to hear Total alleged $214 million natgas manipulation case
Source: Reuters
The case, which has dragged on for years, is the biggest of FERC’s ongoing disputes over alleged power and gas market manipulation, some of which started over a decade ago.
Officials at TotalEnergies were not immediately available for comment.
In 2015, FERC alleged Total made intentionally losing trades – known as “uneconomic” trading – in order to affect index prices in the U.S. Southwest on at least 38 occasions between June 2009 and June 2012. Those losses would be offset by larger gains on other related positions, FERC said.
It was one of a series of so-called “loss leader” or leveraged trading strategies that FERC has pursued over the past decade where traders lose money in one market to benefit larger positions in a benchmark or other financial index.