Coral Energy Resources, a Shell subsidiary, on Thursday became what may be one of the last of many energy trading companies to have settled charges by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) of false price reporting and attempted manipulation of the natural gas market. Coral paid a $30 million civil penalty in the settlement but neither admitted nor denied the charges.

The administrative order issued by CFTC finds that from at least January 2000 through September 2002, Coral reported false, misleading or knowingly inaccurate natural gas trading information, including price and volume information, to certain price reporting firms, such as Inside FERC’s Gas Market Report, and Natural Gas Intelligence, which use the information to calculate price indexes at locations across North America.

The CFTC noted that natural gas futures traders refer to the published indexes for price discovery and for assessing price risks. Consequently, the false information reported to publishers may have affected the price of gas in interstate commerce, according to the order.

The order charged Coral with violating the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and further finds that Coral reported information about trades that never occurred, altered price and volume information for certain trades, and failed to report some actual trades, all with the intent to affect the market price of natural gas. The CFTC said this activity could have affected cash or futures prices.

The CFTC order requires Coral to cease and desist from further violations of the CEA and CFTC regulations, and requires the company to comply with an undertaking to cooperate with the CFTC in this and related matters.

“With the settlement of this action, the Commission has thus far imposed approximately $250 million in civil monetary penalties against those in the natural gas markets who violated the CEA,” said CFTC Acting Chairman Sharon Brown-Hruska. “As a Commissioner and now the Acting Chairman, I believe that for markets to prosper, they must not be constrained by violative behavior. In turn, I am a sincere advocate of utilizing all of the resources in our enforcement program to promote market integrity.”

Coral’s settlement follows similar settlements by El Paso Merchant Energy LP ($20 million); Dynegy Marketing and Trade ($5 million); EnCana Corp.’s former U.S.-based energy trading division, WD Energy Services Inc. ($20 million); Williams Energy Marketing and Trading ($20 million); Enserco Energy Inc. ($3 million); Duke Energy Trading and Marketing ($28 million), Aquila Merchant Services ($26.5 million), Xcel Energy Inc. affiliate e prime Inc. ($16 million), Entergy Koch Trading LP ($3 million), ONEOK Energy Marketing and Trading Co. LP ($3 million), Calpine Energy Services LP ($1.5 million), Reliant Energy Services Inc. ($18 million), and CMS Marketing Services & Trading and CMS Field Services ($16 million).

Last month, Enron Corp. agreed to pay $35 million to settle charges that it, along with one of its natural gas traders, Hunter Shively, engaged in a scheme to manipulate the Henry Hub natural gas spot and futures markets on July 19, 2001 using Enron Online, the company’s electronic trading system, which the CFTC charged was being used as an illegal commodity futures trading exchange. Shively also agreed to pay $300,000 to settle charges against him.

There are two similar false price reporting and attempted market manipulation cases pending at the CFTC against American Electric Power and NRG. CFTC’s former Chairman James Newsome said earlier this year that the commission expected to have more than 90% of the cases wrapped up before the end of this summer.

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