May 23 (Reuters) - A commodities trader filed suit againstBP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Statoil in a U.S. federal court, accusing the companies ofcolluding to fix prices in North Sea Brent crude oil.
Prime International Trading Ltd, in a proposed class-actionlawsuit filed in the courthouse in White Plains, New York onWednesday, accused the oil companies of misreporting prices oftrades in the North Sea benchmark, which sets the price of about70 percent of the world's oil.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a European Commissionprobe into potential market abuse involving the reporting offalse prices to price-setting agency Platts, a unit ofMcGraw-Hill. Authorities last week raided the Londonbureau of Platts and the offices of the three oil majors namedin the lawsuit.
The lawsuit accused the oil companies of reporting"inaccurate, misleading and false information" about Brent crudeto Platts. Platts' information is used to price and settle oilcontracts.
Phone calls and emails to the oil companies seeking commentwere not immediately returned.
Filed in the U.S. Court for the Southern District of NewYork, the lawsuit alleges violations of the U.S. CommodityExchange Act and Sherman Antitrust Law.