Oil Manipulation Inquiry Shows EU’s Hammer After Libor

Statoil ASA sold a tanker of Norwegian crude valued at about $63 million to BP Plc on May 9. The deal, along with six others so far this month, wasn’t subject to any oversight by financial authorities, yet would help establish the price for more than half the world’s oil.

Trading in oil cargoes from the North Sea set benchmark prices published by Platts, a unit of McGraw Hill Financial Inc., that ultimately help determine the amount refiners pay for crude, which in turn affects what consumers pay for gasoline and diesel fuel. Last week, Europe’s top antitrust official barged into this lightly regulated corner of the market, raiding the offices of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP and Statoil, and requesting records from some of Europe’s biggest trading houses, including Vitol Group, Gunvor Group Ltd. and Glencore Xstrata Plc.