市场操纵活动推高美国油价

    趁美国民众还没被大选之年政客们吵吵嚷嚷的高油价理论弄晕之前，我们先来看看几个关于油价的真相吧。迄今为止，不管是民主党人，还是共和党人，华盛顿的政客们还是很少愿意承认这些事实。

    一个鲜为人知的事实是：2008年上次美国总统换届选举期间，油价首次突破100美元/桶其实是价格操纵的结果。

    没错，就是这么回事。全球主要的原油交易市场、纽约商交所（New York Mercantile Exchange）交易池的电话记录显示，那位将油价推至历史高点的交易员在当天交易日开始时曾告诉同事们，他准备“疯狂”一把。完成100美元/桶（与当日其他油价走势截然相反）的交易后，他又夸口称： “我们不会放过这个机会……有人收集艺术品，我们创造价格纪录。”

    我们是怎么知道这些的？这笔交易发生近三年后，美国监管机构悄无声息地通报了对这项“不真实交易”的处罚结果。原油在炼油厂加工制成汽油，原油一涨价，汽油价格自然也水涨船高。为什么美国监管机构要这么拗口地称该项交易为“不真实交易”？原因是即便当时汽油价格已经超过了4美元/加仑，政府仍然担心将这项交易称为“价格操纵”可能引发强烈的反应。接下来的事情就众所周知了。从那时开始，100美元/桶的油价便经常出现，可谓司空见惯。

    华盛顿负责监管能源市场的美国商品期货交易委员会（Commodity Futures Trading Commission，CFTC）现在办事可真是越来越拖拉。直到2010年底，它才起诉上述交易员所在的公司ConAgra Trade Group（后来售予Ospraie Special Opportunities基金和其他投资者）。ConAgra 缴纳了1,200万美元的民事罚款，涉事交易员却安然无恙。CFTC至今也未解释为何没有公开这名交易员的名字。

    那么，最近油价再次跃升至100美元之上又是怎么回事呢？它是另一种市场操纵行为的结果，虽然它是合法的。去年，康菲石油（ConocoPhillips）安排原油通过其海路石油管道（Seaway Pipeline）流入（而非流出）俄克拉荷马州库欣的美国石油储运枢纽，一下就赚了几十亿美元。随着石油供应量飙升至历史新高，美国原油价格承受了巨大的压力，水平远低于世界其他地方。

    Before Americans are subjected to more election-year caterwauling over high gasoline prices, several truths about the price of oil need to be considered – few of them acknowledged so far by the deep thinkers in Washington, whether Democrat or Republican.

    A little-known fact: When oil prices hit $100 a barrel for the first time during the last changing of the presidential guard in 2008, it was the result of price-meddling.

    That's right. In the trading pits of the New York Mercantile Exchange, the world's dominant oil market, phone transcripts showed that the trader who pushed the price to its historic high started the day telling his colleagues he was going to be a "madman" and, after concluding the $100 trade – which ran counter to the session's other price movements – he ended the day bragging, "We weren't gonna' let that one get away from us…some people collect art prints; we collect price prints."

    How do we know all this? The "non-bona fide trade" was quietly reported by our government almost three years after the fact. Oil is processed by refineries to make gasoline, so when oil prices go up, gas prices go up too. Why did the government use such awkward Latinate language in describing the trade as a "non-bona fide" transaction? Because, even as gas prices topped $4 a gallon around the same time, it feared the backlash of calling the oil trade a "manipulation." We all know the rest of the story. From then on, $100 oil would be so common as to become cliché.

    In Washington, the watchdog agency that's responsible for policing the energy market, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has become more known for dragging its feet. It did not charge the offending trader's employer, ConAgra Trade Group (later sold to the Ospraie Special Opportunities fund and other investors) until late 2010. ConAgra paid a civil monetary penalty of $12 million. The trader walked. The CFTC has never explained why it did not name the trader publicly.

    So what about oil's latest leap to over $100? That was the result of another market game, albeit a legal one. ConocoPhillips (COP) made billions last year when it allowed allow oil barrels to enter – but not exit – the nation's key oil hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, through its portion of the Seaway Pipeline. As oil supplies soared to record levels, the price of oil was pressured far below levels seen elsewhere in the world.