ource:nytimes.com
It seems like Wall Street at its worst: a cowboy on the trading floor plots to corner a market, and gets caught.
Only in this case, the brash trader did not work for a high-flying investment house — he worked for BP, whose reputation for taking risks in the oil fields is matched only by its daring in the energy markets, traders and industry experts say, Nelson D. Schwartz reports in The New York Times.
The trader’s attempt to corner the propane market resulted in the largest fine for market manipulation in the history of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal regulator, in 2007.
BP, however, remained committed to the aggressive trading that brought in billions annually — as much as a fifth of the company’s total profits — according to interviews with experts, government officials and other traders.
Now, with BP facing billions in liability claims from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the trading unit’s prospects are uncertain, and the resources the unit once took for granted are threatened.
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