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By Douwe Miedema
WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - A Houston-based unit of RoyalDutch Shell Plc applied to become a registeredderivatives dealer, the second global oil company to accepttough new U.S. trading rules.
More than 80 banks across the world that dominate thelucrative commodity derivative trading business have registeredas so-called Swap Dealers with the Commodity Futures TradingCommission since the beginning of the year.
But Britain's BP Plc was had been the only oilcompany to register with the agency, despite the fact oilcompanies have fiercely competed with Wall Street in commoditymarkets for more than a decade.
The Shell unit, Shell Trading Risk Management, showed up ina registry kept by the National Futures Association, aself-regulatory agency that oversees swaps and futures andsupervises the registration of swap dealers.
It was not clear from the list when Shell filed theapplication. The unit's status as a swap dealer was "pending,"the list showed, a first step towards the provisionalregistration the other swap dealers have.
Shell did not have an immediate comment, while the NFA couldnot immediately be reached for a comment.
Energy trading firms feared being swept up by a deluge ofnew rules when watchdogs clamped down on derivatives tradingafter the 2007-09 financial crisis to prevent a repetition ofthe meltdown and make markets more transparent.
But the vast majority sidestepped the tougher rules, whichamong others demands require firms to report trades. Commoditytrader Cargill is the only other non-bank on the NFA'slist.
