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Democrats' gas pricing probe finds no collusionCNN Washington WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Despite 10 months of investigation and review of 265,000 oil-company documents, investigators for Senate Democrats have found no evidence of collusion by refiners in the gasoline price spikes of the past two summers. In a report released Monday, the Democratic staff of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations blamed oil-company mergers that have reduced the number of refiners, and concluded: "If concentration in the oil industry continues to increase, higher prices can be expected." It also concluded that, "In a number of instances, refiners have sought to increase prices by reducing supply." The report cited the previously disclosed decision of Marathon Ashland to withhold some of its cleaner burning gasoline from the market "so as not to depress prices" in the spring of 2000. It also revealed a 1999 memo by an unidentified BP executive that discussed ways to "shut down ... supply" to increase prices, including such measures as buying rival refiners and closing them, or offering to supply gasoline to rivals in return for their agreement to eliminate their own refining capacity. But the memo also said "our actions need to be significant" in order to sustain a price of increase of even one to three cents per gallon. |
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