BP Fires Trader in ‘Wash’ Trades Case

BP has fired an electricity trader accused last month of conspiring with a counterpart at Reliant Resources Inc. to conduct phony trades in the Western U.S. power markets.

Conversations between the two traders were “inappropriate and disappointing and are embarrassing to the company,” BP said in a filing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. FERC accused the trader of using “wash” trades to manipulate prices.

BP has been ordered by FERC to justify why its power-trading license shouldn’t be revoked. Company spokesman Neil Chapman said the trades cited “did not manipulate the market” because they were “small, end-of-day trade pairs that did not result in financial benefit or loss to BP Energy,” and that revoking the company’s power-trading license would be “too harsh” a punishment.