LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Oil majors BP (>> BP plc) and Statoil (>> Statoil ASA) said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was closing a probe into anticompetitive practices in oil price reporting, while a European Union investigation continued.

European officials in May 2013 raided the offices of oil majors BP, Shell and Statoil as part of an investigation of suspected manipulation of oil and biofuel prices.

A BP spokesman said the FTC decided to close its investigation against the British oil major with no charges or fines.

"On 1 October 2014, BP was informed by the FTC that it was closing its investigation. The other investigations remain open, and there is no deadline for the completion of the inquiries," BP said a release that included its third-quarter earnings results.

BP said it has received inquiries and requests for information from the Japanese Fair Trade Commission, the Korean Fair Trade Commission, and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

A Statoil spokesman said the firm had received the same information as BP. Shell declined to comment.

The investigation involves price submissions by the oil companies to Platts, the world's leading oil pricing agency that is part of McGraw Hill Financials Inc (>> McGraw Hill Financial Inc). Its price assessment process is used to close deals worth billions of dollars.

A Platts spokeswoman said on Tuesday the company has not been notified by the FTC that the energy price-fixing probe was closed nor was it aware of any of the findings. Platts has not received the results of any other pending inquiries, the spokeswoman said in an email.

On Tuesday, Antoine Colombani, spokesman for the European Competition Commissioner, said he could not comment on the FTC's decision but added that the European Commission's investigation continued.

Earlier this month, the commission, which acts as the competition watchdog in the 28-member bloc, raided ethanol companies in two EU countries as part of the probe.

"Our investigation focuses on the prices provided to Platts for a number of oil and biofuel products. The importance of the benchmarks established by Price Reporting Agencies, such as Platts, and the non-regulated nature of the process may leave scope for anti-competitive behaviour leading to price distortions," Colombani said.

"Even small distortions may therefore have a considerable impact," he added.

(Additional reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Norway and Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Jane Baird and Jeffrey Benkoe)

By Ron Bousso and Barbara Lewis

Stocks treated in this article : McGraw Hill Financial Inc, Statoil ASA, BP plc