According to recent reports, the European Commission has raided the offices of the oil and gas companies including BP, Shell and Statoil, and also that of the Platts, which is an oil price reporting agency.

The above named companies have been suspicious of price-fixing. The investigation into the subject is midway and it is said that if the suspicions are found to be true, British people have been paying more than the actual price of the petrol for past several years.

The investigators into the case are trying to find out if the companies had followed some conspiracy in reporting the price of certain oil benchmarks. Also, they are trying to know if the prices of oil were increased falsely by the traders to increase the profit for their owners.

The record of the oil trades with Platts comprise of only a fraction of the same on any day. Also, the traders may have also sent the agency details that suggested higher price than that was achieved generally.

The reports from the European Commission competition authorities averred that the price-fixing may have been going on for more than 10 years.

This, if true, would have caused a dramatic effect on the finances of average families, EU affirmed.