THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: FERC OKs $4M Settlement With Coral Energy: “The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Thursday approved a $4 million settlement with Royal Dutch/Shell Group affiliate Coral Energy Resources L.P. that resolves an investigation into whether a trader at the company provided inaccurate information…”: "This settlement sends an important message to the industry," said FERC Chairman Patrick Wood, III in a statement. "We expect the companies we regulate to be completely forthright and honest in their dealings with the Commission." (ShellNews.net) Posted 4 March 05

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

By Maya Jackson Randall

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Thursday approved a $4 million settlement with Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD,SC) affiliate Coral Energy Resources L.P. that resolves an investigation into whether a trader at the company provided inaccurate information to a price-reporting publication.

"This settlement sends an important message to the industry," said FERC Chairman Patrick Wood, III in a statement. "We expect the companies we regulate to be completely forthright and honest in their dealings with the Commission."

Meanwhile, the company didn't admit to any wrongdoing.

"Coral believes its responses to [FERC] were complete based on the facts known to us at the time," the company said in a statement. "We believe we have not violated any FERC rules, regulations or orders, and consider this agreement and voluntary payment the most effective means of resolving our outstanding issues with them."

FERC's investigation into the accuracy of the information came about as part of a much larger investigation led by commission staff into the role of Enron (ENRNQ) and other energy traders in the Western energy crisis of 2000 and 2001.

As part of that investigation, Coral submitted information to FERC that it said showed Coral's traders didn't report inaccurate information to price-reporting publications, which develop indexes that are used to value billions of dollars worth of energy contracts.

However, FERC passed that information on to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which had statutory authority over the energy price reporting issues. And the CFTC found that Coral's submission to FERC had been inaccurate.

FERC, as a result, started up another investigation and concluded that Coral hadn't provided information about a particular trader who had provided inaccurate information to the price reporting publication.

Under the settlement agreement, Coral will pay $3.5 million to an organization providing energy assistance for low-income customers. Coral also will spend about $500,000 on setting up a task force to develop and implement a program for regulatory compliance within the company.

"We will continue to review our policies and procedures to ensure they remain in compliance with all FERC regulations and orders," the company said.

-By Maya Jackson Randall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9263; Maya.Jackson-Randall@dowjones.com