Petronas stands by Brent standard

Petroliam Nasional Bhd., Malaysia’s state energy company, remains committed to using Brent as a benchmark for buying and selling oil even amid accusations of price fixing, its chief executive said.

“I don’t see any manipulation,” Chief executive Shamsul Azhar Abbas told reporters in Kuala Lumpur Tuesday.

Four energy traders claimed in a lawsuit last month that some of the world’s biggest oil companies, including BPPLC, Statoil ASA and Royal Dutch Shell PLC conspired with Morgan Stanley and energy traders such as Vitol Group to fix spot prices for Brent for more than a decade. The North Sea oil price as assessed by Platts, a unit of New Yorkbased McGraw Hill Financial Inc., is used to price more than half the world’s crude.

The case is one of at least seven U.S. lawsuits alleging price fixing in the Londonbased Brent market.

European Union antitrust authorities raided the offices of companies including Platts, BP and Shell in May amid allegations of collusion in setting prices of crude, refined products and biofuels. Petronas, as Malaysia’s state energy company is known, reported a 16 per cent increase in thirdquarter profit on increased sales.

In Canada, Petronas may sell another stake in its Pacific Northwest LNG project, this time to an Indian company, Shamsul said, declining to name the buyer.