Houston, 14 September 2010

The former chief economist at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Tuesday that new U.S. market rules will not drive energy trading overseas, partly because the industry will help shape the rules.

Talk of energy traders moving their business to other nations because of stricter rules in the United States is "scaremongering," Jeffrey Harris, until February the CFTC's chief economist, told a Platts oil trading conference.

"Markets exist primarily in the United States because the United States is one of the leading consumers of oil products," said Harris, now a college professor. "Futures products are set up for people who want to hedge, and that means they have to be somewhere where people want to deliver and consume."

Ends --

Reuters - for Commodities Now.