Traders accuse oil majors of decade-long manipulation of Brent crude prices

Four long-time traders in the global oil market say in a lawsuit the prices for buying and selling crude are fixed - and that they can prove it.

Some of the world's biggest oil companies including BP, Statoil and Royal Dutch Shell conspired with Morgan Stanley and energy traders including Vitol to manipulate the closely watched spot prices for Brent crude oil for more than a decade, they allege.

The North Sea benchmark is used to price more than half the world's crude and helps determine where costs are headed for fuels including petrol and heating oil.

The case, which follows at least six other US lawsuits alleging Brent price-fixing, provides what appears to be the most detailed description yet of the alleged manipulations and lays out a possible road map for regulators investigating the matter.

The traders who brought it - who include a former director of the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), one of the markets where contracts for future Brent deliveries are traded - allege they paid "artificial and anti-competitive prices" for Brent futures. They also outline attempts to manipulate prices for Russian Urals crude and cite instances when the spread between Brent and Dubai grades of crude may have been rigged.

The oil companies and energy trading houses, which include Trafigura Beheer and Phibro Trading, submitted false and misleading information to Platts, an energy news and price publisher whose quotes are used by traders worldwide, according to the proposed class action filed on Monday in Manhattan.