Charges of overcharging
For nearly two years, federal investigators have been probing overpricing in the oil industry, and last week they made their biggest charges yet. Even as the General Accounting Office was leaking a report criticizing the Department of Energy for foot dragging in its petro-probes of smaller middlemen, DOE was accusing seven of the largest oil companies of overcharging refineries by $1.7 billion since 1973. The alleged method: selling petroleum at far higher prices than permitted under domestic crude-oil controls.
The major offenders, according to DOE, were Texaco, which is accused of some $888 million in overpricing, and Gulf Oil, with...
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