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Oil Speculators Few, but Huge, CFTC Says

Posted on: Thursday, 21 August 2008, 09:01 CDT

Just a few energy speculators control large portions of the oil market, a U.S. regulator said.

On June 6, the day oil prices jumped $11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, one company, identified independently as Swiss energy firm Vitol, held contracts on 57.7 million barrels of oil, enough to fuel the United States for three days, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

At one point, the company, identified by outside sources, held 11 percent of all the oil contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Post reported.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has been investigating the role of oil speculators, which many believe are partly responsible for the unprecedented price run up in oil this year.

"Speculators in the energy futures markets play a much larger role than previously thought," said U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich.

"It is now even harder to accept the agency's laughable assertion that excessive speculation has not contributed to rising energy prices," he said.

The number of players with concentrated investments in oil contracts is fairly small. Near the end of July, CFTC data show, four swap dealers held a third of all of the NYMEX oil contracts, the Post reported.

Source: United Press International

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