U.S. lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Thursday unveiled legislation that would require federal energy market regulators to oversee all over-the-counter crude oil trading, including action on overseas exchanges like the IntercontinentalExchange.
Rep. Bart Stupak, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said a lack of regulation has left the door open to potential manipulation and may have contributed to the meteoric rise of crude oil prices to above $135 a barrel last month.
"You can certainly see manipulation of the price in the market that you never saw before," Stupak told reporters.
Stupak's bill would require the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to oversee U.S. crude oil futures even if they are traded on overseas exchanges.
Overseas trading of U.S. futures contracts, which Stupak called "dark markets," account for more than 30 percent of the volume of West Texas Intermediate oil contracts, the U.S. benchmark which has a delivery option in Cushing, Oklahoma.
"This is Enron all over again, just a little bit more sophisticated," he said, referring to the defunct Houston-based energy giant whose trading strategies were linked to the Western power crisis of 2000-01.
Stupak said his committee -- which has investigated Enron as well as pipeline leaks at BP Plc's Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska -- has not uncovered any evidence of wrongdoing.
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