EXPOSED: TERRORISTS NOT MANIPULATING OIL PRICE

Instead it’s the Geneva-based oil trading conglomerate Vitol - or so America’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission seems to be insinuating. The Washington Post on Thursday named Vitol, which has offices in about 25 countries, as a key player in the oil market that had been “reclassified” by the CFTC as a financial - rather than industrial - operator. Earlier this month it emerged that after collating fresh market data the American regulator had decided that many of those active in the market were trying to make money from price moves, rather than simply managing energy supplies. The Post now says the CFTC believes some 81 per cent of the oil contracts on Nymex lie in the hands of “financial firms speculating for their clients or for themselves…” Vitol alone is said to have spoken for 11 per cent of all Nymex contracts at one... [read full story]