CFTC says no evidence of oil manipulation, hoarding

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission told Congress on Thursday there is no evidence that market traders are working together to push up crude oil prices or that oil supplies are being hoarded.

“We have no evidence that people are hoarding oil,” CFTC Chairman Walter Lukken told a House Appropriations subcommittee.

He also said the CFTC doesn’t “see systemically in the current market” that traders are “working together” to drive up prices.

Separately, he said the CFTC and other members of an interagency task force plan to give Congress an interim report “in the coming weeks” on the role speculators have played in the crude oil market.

Reuters