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Aug 13 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday found that BP Plc manipulated the natural gas market in 2008, as alleged bythe U.S. energy regulator, but did not address a proposed $28million fine or any other penalties.
The administrative law judge's decision upheld the FederalEnergy Regulatory Commission's previous charges that BP'strading activities in Texas violated the Natural Gas Act.
FERC in August 2013 ordered BP to explain why it should nothave to pay the fine and disgorge $800,000 plus interest. BP hasdisputed FERC's allegations.
For a timeline on FERC's BP case and the events leading upto it, see below.
2000-2001 - A power crisis hits California and other westernU.S. states, costing customers up to $45 billion along with losteconomic activity due in part to power and gas marketmanipulation.
December 2001 - Enron enters bankruptcy amid an accountingscandal and accusations of power and gas market manipulation.
2001-2003 - Numerous energy marketers, such as the former Enron,Mirant, El Paso and Dynegy, exit U.S. power and gas markets dueto credit concerns and allegations of market manipulation.
April 2003 - U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)alleges BP manipulated the propane market in April 2003 andFebruary 2004.
August 2003 - Blackout leaves 55 million people in the dark ineight U.S. Northeast and Midwest states and Ontario in Canada.July 2005 - U.S. Congress passes Energy Policy Act of 2005,ratcheting up penalties FERC can impose for market manipulationand reliability violations to $1 million per day per violationfrom the prior cap of $10,000 a day.
October 2007 - BP agrees to pay $303 million to settle propanemanipulation allegations with CFTC and U.S. Department ofJustice.
September 2008 - FERC says BP had a pre-existing Houston ShipChannel-Henry Hub spread position that included short indexswaps at Houston Ship Channel and long index swaps at Henry Hub.The position made money whenever the spread widened betweendaily physical gas prices at Houston Ship Channel and Henry Hub.
When Hurricane Ike caused Houston Ship Channel gas prices toplummet, BP's spread position had the potential to be worthmillions of dollars if the daily spread between Houston ShipChannel and Henry Hub remained wide enough through the end ofSeptember, FERC said.
September-November 2008 - FERC alleges BP violated the NaturalGas Act by manipulating the next-day gas market at Houston ShipChannel from mid-September through Nov. 30, 2008.
FERC's Office of Enforcement said BP traders made uneconomicphysical gas sales to suppress the Houston Ship Channel GasDaily index and boost the value of BP's financial position.
May 2013 - In an unrelated case, European Commission officialsraid the offices of oil majors BP, Shell and Statoil as part ofa probe into suspected manipulation of oil and biofuel prices.
Other regulators, including the U.S. Federal TradeCommission (FTC), the U.S. CFTC, Japanese Fair Trade Commissionand the Korean Fair Trade Commission also opened investigations.
August 2013 - FERC issues order to BP to show cause why thecompany should not be found to have violated the Natural Gas Actand pay a civil penalty of $28 million and disgorge $800,000plus interest.
October 2013 - BP denies wrongdoing in answer to FERC.
May 2014 - FERC issues order establishing a hearing in July todetermine whether BP violated the Natural Gas Act.
June-August 2014 - FERC seeks data on Houston Ship Channel andother gas sales from several companies, including units ofMcGraw Hill, IntercontinentalExchange, BP, Energy TransferPartners, Enbridge, Enterprise Products, Kinder Morgan, AtmosEnergy, Castleton Commodities, Tenaska, Integrys, Encana,Exelon, Chesapeake Energy, Chevron, Enable Energy, Barclays andTotal.
October 2014 - U.S. FTC tells BP it closed its probe intoanticompetitive practices in oil price reporting, but otherregulators were still investigating.
August 2015 - Administrative law judge finds BP tradersmanipulated natural gas market as alleged by FERC enforcement.BP said it would appeal to commission.
FERC said the commission would decide at a later timewhether civil penalties should be imposed for any BP violationsand whether BP should disgorge any unjust profits. There ishowever no statutory deadline for FERC to act. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Chris Reese)
