World’s Top Oil Trader Vitol Smashed Profit Record in 2020 - Bloomberg
Vitol Group reaped record profits of around $3 billion last year as the world’s largest independent oil trader surfed the dramatic moves in energy markets, according to people familiar with the matter.
The results are the latest indication of the bonanza that oil traders enjoyed in 2020, when the commodity plunged amid a Saudi-Russian price war in the early days of the pandemic and then staged a sharp recovery as OPEC+ cut production.
Vitol hasn’t yet closed its 2020 accounts, and the final profit figure may still change, the same people said, asking not to be named because the information isn’t public. The company may also use some of last year’s earnings for write-downs, reducing the final net income figure. Still, the trading house expects to show a net profit of around $3 billion in 2020, significantly higher than the previous record of $2.3 billion booked in both 2009 and 2019, the same people said.
Vitol, which is owned by about 350 of its partner-traders, made a significant chunk of its profits during the second quarter, when oil demand collapsed, allowing traders to buy cheap crude and store it, while locking in a profit by selling forward the oil on the futures market at higher prices.
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