CFTC agrees to settle Arcadia oil manipulation case

WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has reached an agreement in principle to settle its oil manipulation case against Arcadia Petroleum and Parnon Energy, taking a step closer to ending a high-profile, years-long lawsuit.

The deal, coming almost three months after both sides entered mediation talks to settle the litigation, would prevent one of the most high-profile oil manipulation cases going to trial.

The U.S. commodities derivatives regulator sued two well-known traders, James Dyer of Parnon Energy and Nick Wildgoose of Arcadia, and their firms with allegations they made $50 million by squeezing markets in 2008.

Details of the settlement were not available as both sides hammer out details, a joint letter from the commodity derivatives regulator and the defendants said.

"The parties need additional time to finalize the language of a proposed settlement agreement and to seek the approval of the full Commission to file the proposed settlement agreement with the Court," said the letter, which was filed with the federal court in Manhattan on Monday.

The letter asked for a judge to push back a scheduling until Aug. 4.

Arcadia and Parnon, which are owned by Norwegian billionaire John Fredriksen, have denied the charges, and have unsuccessfully sought to dismiss the cases.