CFTC probes sale of futures for 6 million barrels in two minutes — OilPrice

In the United States, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is reviewing oil futures transactions in which, on March 23, contracts equivalent to at least 6 million barrels of oil were sold within two minutes. This happened shortly before President Donald Trump backed away from threats to strike Iranian power plants, OilPrice reports.

Sharp increase in trading volumes

The sale involved Brent and West Texas Intermediate oil futures. According to Bloomberg, trading volume during this two-minute period was 8.5 times higher than the volume during the same period over the previous week.

CFTC Chairman Michael Selig told Bloomberg Television that the commission's enforcement division is examining oil trading during the war in Iran, including an unusual surge in activity before Trump's statement. The timing of the transactions raised questions about whether certain traders may have known in advance about the president's plans.

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No results of the review

Selig did not name the trading participants or say whether investigators had found evidence of violations. According to him, the CFTC takes the review of such transactions seriously. Bloomberg had previously also reported several spikes in oil trading volumes ahead of important Trump statements this spring, raising concerns about the possible use of nonpublic information.

The CFTC has not yet announced the results of the review.