Federal regulators said on Tuesday that they would place stricter limits on foreign exchanges that trade American oil as concerns continue to grow about the role of speculation in rising fuel prices. Some lawmakers said the move was long overdue.
At a Senate hearing to assess its performance, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it would require the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange to adopt position limits used in the United States for the trading of the West Texas Intermediate crude oil contract, which is linked to a similar contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Under the new agreement, foreign officials also will share daily trading data with American authorities and report any violations. Previously they shared data on a weekly basis.
IntercontinentalExchange Inc. in Atlanta, the parent company of ICE Futures Europe, plans to comply with the new rules and said the commission’s action would have almost no impact on its customers or business.
The commission’s acting chairman, Walter L. Lukken, had previously told Congress that oil prices appeared to reflect market fundamentals. He pointed to the declining value of the dollar and rising demand in developing nations as major factors behind the multiyear ascent in oil prices.
But in the last month the agency has taken a flurry of actions to gather more data on unregulated trading, including over-the-counter swaps.
Considering the commission’s limited view of the futures market, Senator Byron L. Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, questioned whether regulators knew enough about the markets to gauge the effects of speculation.
“If you don’t have the foggiest idea what percentage of total contracts you are regulating, you wouldn’t have a clue whether there is excessive speculation in the markets,” Mr. Dorgan said.
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