Giant Oil Trader Vitol…. Bloomberg

Lots of good stuff in Bloomberg’s article about Ian Taylor and Vitol here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-06-01/giant-oil-trader-vitol-makes-billions-in-volatile-times

“Vitol, which trades about 6.5 percent of the world’s oil, fights in a tough arena. It competes with other independents such as Glencore, Trafigura Group, Mercuria Energy Group, Gunvor Group, and Castleton Commodities International. It also grapples for market share against Big Oil’s in-house trading arms, including those of BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, and, increasingly, state-owned Chinese oil companies.”

And note this:

“Vitol’s financial health isn’t linked to oil prices the way Big Oil’s fortunes are. “We are long volatility,” says Paul Greenslade, who was Vitol’s head of trading until he retired in 2014. That’s industry jargon meaning Vitol benefits from price fluctuations, regardless of market prices. In 2009, for instance, the year the company reported its best profit, oil plunged to $30 a barrel from a record $150. Last year, as most of the energy industry struggled amid cascading oil prices, Vitol reported its fourth-highest profit.”