BP puts crude oil traders on leave pending investigations into China dealings

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - BP <BP.L> has put four traders responsible for Chinese crude oil sales on temporary leave as it conducts internal investigations into trades with Singapore's Hontop Energy, four sources familiar with the matter said.

They were involved in crude trading and operations in Singapore and China and were put on leave last week, the sources said, while BP's counterparties have been told to deal with another team for Chinese crude transactions.

BP declined to comment.

BP traders were named in a court document filed by Malaysian lender CIMB where the bank applied to place Hontop Energy under judicial management.

BP has not been implicated in any wrongdoing in the court proceeding.

Hontop is the Singapore-based trading arm of independent refiner China Wanda Holding Group Co Ltd.

(Reporting by Florence Tan, Shu Zhang and Roslan Khasawneh; editing by Jason Neely)