The Guardian (UK): Market forces: ‘in the wake of its results, Royal Dutch Shell came back to earth…’

Relieved: The market for refined petroleum products, including gasoline and diesel fuel, is now an international market. The US exports a great deal of diesel and gasoline to Europe. As a result I fully expect this investigation over market manipulation to expand to the US because the exportation of excessive amounts of refined product, or the apparent exportation of excessive amounts of refined product, can cause price hikes here in the States.

Blessing: Hmmmm. BP,and Shell are partners in Crime. I now imagine why BP filled Amicus Brief in support of Shell in Kiobel v Shell at Supreme court in America

Relieved: USCitizen: So glad you are back. Things were getting to be a bit boring and one-sided with only LondonLad to hold down the fort for RDS.

Outsider: Relieved: Neither Watts, nor vd Veer nor Voser had the good fortune to spend a few years in Cambridge with Lord Madingley of Boots and Coots fame. I think Moody Stuart might have done...

uscitizen: I have not absconded John, just do not have time to waste or breath to waste on folks with a clear biased agenda. Folks who take any data and use it to build their already determined conlcusion. Later - much too busy trying to get my retirement paid for by contractors taking me to lunch twice a year, man these perks are awesome!! Again - get a life.

Relieved: Maybe we ought to start calling RDS and BP management the 'Cambridge Boys Club' or perhaps the 'Cambridge Mafia'. No ?? Just a thought. Anybody else have any ideas, aside from the usual obscenities.

Relieved: It seems reasonable to speculate that if the CEO's of these companies reached a deal on oil prices, then the executive committees of both companies were also involved. Members of their boards of directors may also have been involved. Given that RDS had executives from the US on the exec. committee and on the board I would guess those individuals (retired or not) are also subjects of a wider criminal investigation. Involvement of the US DOJ therefore seems to be inevitable. And who knows, maybe we shall get to the bottom of these 'damnable and viscous lies and rumors' about price fixing. Afterall, RDS management is governed by well established corporate 'business principles' and would never stoop to such conduct. Dream on, my children, dream on. Don't you just love the arrogance of power.

Relieved: LondonLad: While it is true that oil is traded as a commodity on various markets it is also true that the oil companies have been heavy speculators in those markets. That fact has been know for a long time.

LondonLad: The biggest oil price fixers in the UK in order of “fixing” are: 1. UK Government (at a healthy 60%) - FACT 2. New York and London Stock Market traders (non-oil company traders) – FACT 3. Companies that buy up cargo loads of oil and store it offshore for the price to rise then sell at vast profits – FACT 4. Shell, BP, Statoil et. al. – ALLEDGEDLY Lets face it, as with the LIBOR scandal, it takes more than one or two companies to fix the price of a product.

Relieved: LondonLad: Correct me if I am wrong, but I seem to recall RDS having the same problem over price fixing in the Phillipines. In the States this alleged price fixing activity could be prosecuted under Federal conspiracy and Racketeering statutes (i.e., engaging in organized crime), among others. People would/could go to jail for a very, very long time if convicted of such activity.