Description of incidents
- Mongstad thermal power plant has an installed production capacity of 270 MW. From September 2009 to June 2010 the power plant was under hot commissioning. Statoil ASA published several Urgent Market Messages (UMM) regarding available production during this period. From 30 April 2010 until 26 May 2010 Statoil ASA has placed orders and entered into transactions in the Elspot market while holding inside information regarding the duration of the hot commissioning period.
- Kollsnes processing plant is operated by Statoil ASA and has an installed consumption capacity of 270 MW. The incident took place when a consumption failure occurred at Kollsnes 6 May 2010. A UMM was published to the market with open event stop. On 14 September 2010 Market Surveillance contacted Kollsnes to verify whether the consumption failure was still ongoing and subsequently the UMM was updated stating that the event had ended on 6 May 2010. In the period between 7 May 2010 and 13 September 2010 Statoil ASA has placed orders and entered into transactions in the Elspot market while holding inside information.
- The second incident at Kollsnes processing plant occurred when a planned maintenance at Kollsnes from 13 to 27 September 2010 was not published in a UMM. Market Surveillance contacted Kollsnes after the maintenance was known in the media and a UMM was published on 14 September 2010. On 13 September 2010 Statoil ASA has placed orders and entered into transactions in the Elspot market while holding inside information.
Conclusion
The three incidents described above constitute breaches of the disclosure requirements and the prohibition against insider trading as set out in the Market Conduct Rules section 3.4 and 3.5 cf. 3.1 and section 2.3. In accordance with the recommendation from Market Surveillance Nord Pool Spot AS has decided to issue a written warning to Statoil ASA pursuant to the Market Conduct Rules section 7.
When considering the type of sanction, the fact that the disclosure of information was severely delayed and that the insider trading was conducted over an extensive time period were deemed as aggravating circumstances while it was deemed mitigating that the information was not considered to have a significant effect on the prices in the Elspot market.
The Market Conduct Rules can be read here and are available on Nord Pool Spot’s website.
About Nord Pool Spot
Nord Pool Spot runs the leading power market in Europe and offers both day-ahead and intraday markets to its customers. 350 companies from 18 countries trade on the market. The Nord Pool Spot group has offices in Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Tallinn and London. In 2010 the group had a total turnover of 310 TWh, which includes the auction volume in the UK market N2EX.
Lysaker, 16 February 2011 12:00 CET
For further information, please contact Nord Pool Spot:
Stina Johansen, Communications manager Nordic,
phone + 47 916 50 603
Camilla Berg, Head of Market Surveillance,
phone +47 67 10 91 31