More woes for BP

More bad news today for oil giant BP p.l.c ADS (BP). According to the Wall Street Journal, BP and its energy traders have been issued subpoenas looking into the possibility that the company may have been a part of price manipulation of crude-oil and gasoline markets in 2003 and 2004. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is looking into the company's over-the-counter market, which includes trades conducted over the phone or electronically in products not listed on exchanges, or in marketplaces that regulators are not able to see.

BP has definitely seen better days. Next week the company is set to appear before Congress to talk about the events that led up to the shutdown of a large portion of their Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska. According to some employees, company officials knowingly manipulated test results in the area to make the field appear to be in better operating shape that it actually was.

This is not the first time that BP has been under review for the company's pricing. It already is facing a complaint filed by federal commodities regulators for allegedly manipulating much of the U.S. market for propane and, in 2003, BP agreed to pay $2.5 million in a settlement with the New York Mercantile Exchange over charges of improper crude-oil trading. The Exchange cited 10 oil violations in 2001 and 2002. Among the allegations were charges of wash trades, or simultaneous swaps of the same amount of a commodity for the same price.

It is kind of hard to think that BP's current legal problems are "just a misunderstanding" given the company's history, but I really do hope that it is learning from its ongoing mistakes.

On Wall Street today BP is currently trading down 1.8% to $67.10, down $1.20.