Even though it has found no evidence of impropriety on its part, Royal Dutch Shell affiliate Coral Energy said it has implemented new procedures to shield itself from any misunderstandings or abuses that may occur when reporting prices on natural gas trades to energy trade publications.

The Houston-based gas and electricity trader has discontinued reporting prices over the telephone and has started submitting its prices on a standardized form to energy newsletters, such as NGI, that publish price indices. The price information is reported only after it has been cleared by the company’s risk control group, said Coral spokesman Jimmy Fox. “We feel this is the best way to maintain records of the information that we provide, and to prevent any misunderstandings about what is being reported.”

Coral Energy is continuing to submit prices to energy newsletters, said Fox, adding that only the procedure has changed.

Coral has joined the ranks of many other companies who have taken similar steps in the wake of disclosures by Williams, Dynegy, American Electric Power (AEP) and CMS Energy that their traders submitted false prices on trades.

Asked if Coral Energy provided bogus prices as well, Fox said, “We’re in the process of conducting our internal review, but based upon what we’ve seen today, we believe we’ve acted appropriately.”

He confirmed Coral Energy was one of many gas marketers that have been targeted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is investigating the matter. Fox said he wasn’t sure if the company also was the subject of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s probe into the same pricing issue.

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