By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, July 29 (Reuters) - BP Plc , RoyalDutch Shell Plc, Morgan Stanley and othercompanies urged a U.S. judge to dismiss nationwide litigationclaiming they conspired for 12 years to fix prices of Brentcrude oil, a benchmark for the cost of gasoline and heating oil.
In papers filed on Monday night in U.S. District Court inManhattan, the defendants said there was no evidence theycolluded to manipulate spot prices or intended to do so, inviolation of U.S. commodity and antitrust laws.
They also said that because the alleged manipulation tookplace outside the United States and was governed by foreign law,U.S. courts had no authority to handle the case to begin with.
"Threadbare" and "conclusory" allegations made by theplaintiffs are "wholly untethered to any defendant's conduct,"the defendants said. "The complaint thus fails to adequatelyallege price artificiality in any market."
The plaintiffs include futures and derivatives traders andfirms who allege the manipulation resulted in unfavorable priceson the oil they traded.
They sued after European Commission investigators in May2013 raided offices of BP, Shell, the London bureau of pricingservice Platts and others over suspected oil and biofuel pricemanipulation.
The plaintiffs seek class-action status, compensatorydamages and triple damages.
David Kovel, a Kirby McInerney partner representing theplaintiffs, on Tuesday said his clients are reviewing and willrespond to the defendants' filings.
Brent crude is a North Sea oil benchmark used to priceroughly two-thirds of the world's crude oil supplies.
According to the complaint, the defendants deliberatelysubmitted false prices, "spoof" orders and transactions with"aberrant" pricing to Platts, which is owned by McGraw HillFinancial Inc and used by traders around the world.
The defendants were also accused of conducting "wash sales"that moved prices without exposing participants to market risk.
Among the other defendants are Norway's Statoil ASA ; Switzerland-based energy trading firm Vitol SA; atrading unit of Switzerland's Mercuria Energy Group Ltd; andHess Energy Trading Co, a joint venture between Hess Corp and two former Goldman Sachs partners.
Part of their argument for dismissal is based on a 2010 U.S.Supreme Court decision that emphasized a presumption againstusing U.S. law to police foreign conduct.
"Brent crude oil is sourced from the North Sea and tradedoverseas, and Platts makes its reports from London," thedefendants said. "Plaintiffs' winding causal theory - startingin a foreign oil market, going through a foreign price reportingagency, and then ending in diverse futures and physical oilmarkets - does nothing to change that."
The plaintiffs said they conducted their trades on U.S.exchanges including the New York Mercantile Exchange andIntercontinental Exchange, and incurred liability domestically.
Platts is not a defendant.
The case is In re: North Sea Brent Crude Oil FuturesLitigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York,No. 13-md-02475. (Editing by Tom Brown)
