Citigroup's Phibro barred by Platts-sources

LONDON/DUBAI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Oil price assessment agency Platts has barred Citigroup Inc's (C.N) dealing unit Phibro from trading in its daily window, sources familiar with the move said on Monday.

Phibro, is the latest in a series of trading arms owned by major Wall Street banks to be placed under review by Platts.

Platts has a policy of making no official comment on any decision to place a company under review -- its term for restricting them from making bids or offers or trading in its 30-minute price assessment window.

But it has said it sometimes needs to limit activities in its price-discovery process if counterparty concerns about a company's acceptability threaten to distort benchmark prices.

Citigroup also declined to comment.

"Citigroup's bids and offers will not be taken into account," one source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Another source confirmed the decision.

Platts uses bids, offers and trades to set the price for hundreds of opaque, over-the-counter physical oil and energy products.

The review does not prevent Phibro from trading oil altogether. It only excludes it from Platts' price assessment window, which limits its influence in establishing benchmark levels.

In its biggest rescue of a bank yet, the U.S. government has agreed to shoulder most of Citigroup's potential losses on $306 billion of high-risk assets and to inject $20 billion of new capital.

As the financial crisis worsens and once untouchable Wall Street financial institutions crumble, Platts a unit of McGraw-Hill Companies Inc (MHP.N) has stepped up its monitoring of counterparty acceptance in the oil market.

In early July, Platts put Lehman Brothers under review, about two months before the investment bank was forced to declare bankruptcy.

It did the same for trading heavyweights Morgan Stanley (GS.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N), but has since lifted those two reviews.