Vitol Emerges as Major Oil Trader in US and Abroad

A new video highlights Vitol's President and CEO Mike Loya. The video showcases Vitol's capabilities and position as one of the world's largest oil traders.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhSPh6EjRag

Koch Carbon Earns Top Safety Designation

Koch Carbon, LLC’s petroleum coke handling facility was awarded the California Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) STAR yesterday for its outstanding safety and operational record and programs.

“To achieve STAR status, it takes employee enthusiasm, safety awareness, and genuine management commitment to employee well being,” said Iraj Pourmehraban, Cal/OSHA VPP area manager. “I commend Koch Carbon for its excellent work and dedication to workplace safety at its Long Beach facility.”

The California VPP STAR recognizes employers and their employees who have voluntarily implemented safety and health programs that effectively prevent and control occupational hazards. The programs go beyond minimal regulatory standards and provide the best feasible protection at the site. Cal/OSHA VPP STAR establishments are considered to be leaders in the field of workplace safety and health.

Koch Carbon operates a dry bulk facility within The Port of Long Beach. The facility is used to export petroleum coke and prilled sulfur. Materials are produced by local refineries and trucked to the Koch Carbon facility for export via ocean going vessels. Storage silos on site are used to stage petroleum coke prior to loading. Koch Carbon has a contract with American Plant Services (APS) to provide operations labor at the facility. Both Koch Carbon and APS were awarded STAR status with Cal/OSHA.

This is a really great and well deserved distinction for Koch. Check out the article.

Mirtchev: The Root of the Crisis

Another interesting Focus Washington. Alexander Mirtchev considers the economic crisis to be caused mainly by problems of solvency, rather than liquidity.

Vitol CEO Mike Loya on Oil Prices

Vitol President and CEO Mike Loya provides insight on the market and summer oil prices in a recent interview with Focus Washington's Don Goldberg.

It is an interesting interview and one definitely worth checking out.




Check out the release as well.

Uncertainty in Oil

Check out the below video. Alexander Mirtchev, Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Kazakhstan Sustainable Development Fund, Kazyna, discusses commodities price volatility.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oJkAzwsdLg

Galoc Oil Field

BusinessWorld Online is reporting that production has resumed at Galoc field in northwest Palawan. Operations were suspended in June due to bad weather.


The Galoc oil field is estimated to contain 10 million barrels of oil, and produces between 12,000 and 14,000 barrels per day. Crude oil from Galoc is expected to generate foreign exchange savings for the country worth over a billion dollars during its lifetime. The oil field’s production is 6% of the country’s total demand of 300,000 barrels.


Vitol has a 68.6 percent stake in GPC along with Otto Energy with 31.4 percent.

Gas Embargo on Iran

There has been a lot of talk in Washington about cutting off Iran's gas imports to pressure Iran to stop enriching uranium. Robert Naiman of The Huffington Post wrote on this issue and explains why this, in his words, is a "stupid idea."

For one, Naiman says, without the support of other allies, this type of action would have little impact. "A U.S.-sponsored gas embargo on Iran isn't likely to have much impact if Russia, China, Turkey and half of Europe aren't cooperating - after all, it's not the U.S. that's exporting gas to Iran - unless it is imposed by force. "

Naiman also points out that Iranian retaliation, which they have threatened to do by stopping oil exports to the West, could have a significant effect on gas prices in the U.S. He estimates a price jump of 30%, which could have political implications for Obama. "If you think the teabagger right wing in the U.S. is nuts now, wait until they can blame $4 a gallon gas on an Obama Iran gas embargo demanded by the Israel Lobby," Naiman says.

Naiman suggests several other reasons why a gas embargo is a bad idea in addition to lack of support, Iran retaliation, and increased gas prices. He makes some really interesting points. I suggest you check out his article, "Mr. Mousavi's Gas Embargo on Iran?"

Vitol's Intention to Acquire Hillsborough

IBT Commodities reported yesterday that shares of coal miner Hillsborough Resources increased more than 41 per cent to 44.5 cents on Monday, after Vitol Anker International B.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Vitol Group, announced its intention to make an offer to acquire all of the common shares of the company that it does not currently own for 45 cents per share.

"Our offer presents compelling value to Hillsborough’s shareholders and creates an immediate opportunity for shareholders to receive cash proceeds for their investment. Our offer price reflects our respect and enthusiasm for Hillsborough’s business,” said Jacobus Sterken, Vitol Anker’s Director.

More Oil Traders

Ari J. Officer wrote an article for TIME magazine arguing the need for more oil traders. He says the Obama Administration can’t stabilize prices by regulating speculators. According to the article, limiting trading would make the oil-futures market smaller than it currently is, something Officer believes is dangerous.


“The oil-futures market is tiny compared with the physical oil market: less than 3% of the world’s oil consumption over the next year is accounted for in the open interest.”


Because oil is an international commodity and the U.S. government can’t regulate the global market, Officer believes that the U.S. “should not outsource markets by placing a divide between America and the rest of the world.”

Check out the article. It is an interesting read.

Oil Prices

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday on the decrease in oil prices after a year long rally that culminated in its best quarter since 1990. This is interesting given what happened last year after oil reached a remarkable high of $145.29 a barrel only to fall 77% in seven months.


The high price of oil this year is unexpected given the low demand. As Vitol CEO Ian Taylor noted last month, “The recent rise in oil prices [does] not appear to sit comfortably with the currently available supply and demand data."

The downward pressure on oil is so great it could trade for as little as $20 a barrel by the end of the year, according to the Chicago Tribune. This is due to the lessened demand at a time when there is a big surplus, Philip Verleger Jr., an expert on energy markets at the University Calgary, told the Tribune.


It will definitely be interesting to see what happens the rest of the summer.

Update on Galoc Oil Field

Production at the Galoc oil field in the Philippines was delayed due to technical problems following the halt in production last week because of adverse weather. UPI and BusinessWorld covered Vitol’s decision to delay production.

Galoc Considers Increasing Production

According to Reuters, Galoc Production Co (GPC) is considering increasing production of the Galoc oilfield offshore of the Philippines. Currently, Galoc produces between 12,000 and 14,000 barrels per day from two subsea wells.

Vitol has a 68.6 percent stake in GPC along with Otto Energy with 31.4 percent.

Bingaman to offer new fuels reserve legislation

As part of the energy legislation that Senate Energy Committee is developing, Chairman Bingaman has introduced S. 967, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Modernization Act of 2009 to create a refined petroleum product reserve that would contain at least 30 million barrels of transportation fuels like gasoline and diesel.  The new reserve will be part of the nation’s 1-billion-barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

 

Sen. Bingaman:  “Our domestic oil market has changed and we must have a more sophisticated strategy to react to disruptions in our oil supply.  While we are more dependent on imported crude oil than ever before, we also import more refined petroleum products.  When U.S. refinery operations are disrupted, imported products from other countries are required to fill the gap.  This legislation would provide a needed cushion while damaged infrastructure is repaired.”

 

In the 1970s, when SPR was set up, the U.S. was vulnerable to supply disruptions, as the nation was a significant and growing importer of crude oil.  However, the country then had plentiful refining capacity and did not import large volumes of refined products such as gasoline and diesel.  Therefore, SPR managers decided to stockpile only crude oil.

 

Since then, history has shown that severe weather, not geopolitical events, is the most frequent cause of supply interruptions.  For example, Hurricanes Gustav and Ike last September halted much of our nation’s refining operations, and that resulted in fuel shortages in parts of the U.S. (mainly in the Southeast).  The SPR was of limited use in easing these outages because the refineries affected by the storms were not able to process the crude oil from the reserve into fuels.

 

Both the bill text and a one-page summary have been posted to the Senate Energy 

Vitol takes more interest in Congo

Vitol is seeking to increase its stake offshore of Congo.  According to Offshore Magazine, the Swiss-based physical trading company is increasing its stake in the opportunity.

Sellers like Vitol, Glencore, and Chemoil find alternative offload in Singapore

Good take on using future to offload excess inventories, from Reuters out of Singapore:

SGX fuel oil futures plan attractive to sellers

Reuters

29 April, 2009

Journalist: Yaw Yan Chong

 

Singapore Exchange's proposed fuel oil futures could see warmer reception from sellers, who see it is another way to offload cargoes, than buyers averse to paying security deposits and to its loading limits, traders said on Wednesday.

 

SGX (SGXL.SI: Quote, Profile, Research), which is developing a fuel oil contract similar to that operated by SIMEX in the early 1990s, held a session on Tuesday with majors Shell, BP and Singapore Petroleum Co, as well as traders Vitol, Glencore, Chemoil, Hin Leong, PetroChina, shipper Maersk and bunker supplier Equatorial Marine.

Vitol and Arawak

For a good selection of information on Arawak and Vitol, check out the VitolNews blog.

Vitol on the Move with ICECAP

Check out this Reuters article.  Interesting to see Vitol moving into a clean energy endeavor. Looking forward to more details on this:

Vitol buys ICECAP's Kyoto carbon offset portfolio

Tue Apr 28, 2009 2:13pm BST

By Michael Szabo

LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) - Swiss-based oil trader Vitol has bought up the remaining share of a clean energy project portfolio it co-owned with developers ICECAP Ltd., sources close to the deal said on Tuesday.

"It was simply a portfolio, a joint venture with Vitol, that was bought out by Vitol," said one source who declined to be named.

Neither Vitol nor UK-based ICECAP would confirm the deal but another source who requested anonymity said the portfolio consisted of between 10-20 U.N.-registered projects in China, a majority of which were hydro dams.

Under the Kyoto Protocol climate change pact, developers like ICECAP can invest in clean energy projects in emerging countries under the $32 billion Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) scheme.

In return, developers receive carbon offsets called Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) from the United Nations which can be sold to investors like Vitol.

The number of CERs to be generated by the portfolio before 2012, the year Kyoto expires, was unclear but U.N. data showed it could be more than 10 million tonnes of avoided carbon dioxide.

Benchmark CERs for delivery in December CEREZ9 were trading at 11.40 euros ($14.84) a tonne on Tuesday.

The deal has also resulted in the departure of at least two ICECAP employees involved in project origination, a third source said. Sources said ICECAP will continue to manage its 15 million CER fund, called the ICECAP Carbon Portfolio fund, which boasts clients including Italy's Enel Trade SpA (ENEI.MI), Greece's Public Power Corporation (DEHr.AT) and Japan's Marubeni Corporation (8002.T). 

"In terms of what it means for ICECAP ... nothing really has changed. They still have the ongoing responsibilities under the fund (and) it still has a large portfolio of projects," the first source said, adding that ICECAP will continue to originate CDM projects.

"There are still origination requirements in that fund. Initial volume projections on projects can fluctuate and therefore there can often be an ongoing requirement to continually originate projects."

Vitol's Chief Executive Ian Taylor said in March it will expand into natural gas, carbon emissions, and coal markets. [ID:nLO410484] (Additional reporting by Jackie Cowhig; Editing by Peter Blackburn)

Here's a pretty interesting press release and link to a video interview by Vitol Inc. President and CEO Mike Loya on what Vitol does in the U.S.  Vitol Inc. is the U.S. arm of the larger Vitol Group company.  The interview is definitely worth watching:  

Vitol Inc. President Mike Loya Discusses the Intricacies of Oil Trading With "Focus Washington"

Physical Trading Expert Provides Insight Into Operations in the United States

By: Marketwire .

Apr. 27, 2009 03:53 PM

HOUSTON, TX -- (Marketwire) -- 04/27/09 -- In an interview with Focus Washington's Karen Hanretty, Mike Loya, President and CEO of Vitol Incorporated, discussed the company's North American core business of physical oil trading. Mr. Loya illustrates the key work of Vitol Inc., the American arm of the Vitol Group, one of the world's largest oil and gas traders. The company imported more than 135 million barrels (over 5 billion gallons) of crude and other products to the United States in 2008.

From the company's North and South American headquarters in Houston, Texas, Mr. Loya leads a team of some of the most experienced physical traders and shippers in the industry.

"One of the key roles of Vitol in the United States is to help balance the system," said Mr. Loya. "Through implementation of the company's vast knowledge base, experience, and global reach, Vitol Inc. is able to help supply the American economy with the energy it needs to operate efficiently."

Through a diverse set of growing business models that also includes natural gas, power, coal, bio-fuels and carbon emissions, Vitol is able to meet energy needs through its various projects across the United States and around the globe. Mr. Loya talked about an example at Los Angeles International Airport. The airport consumes about 38 million barrels (1.6 billion gallons) of jet fuel per year. PFTC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Vitol Inc., supplied around 20 percent of that volume in 2008.

Mr. Loya provided insight into the fuel terminal and tank farm being constructed to serve Florida, a state without a single oil refinery. The facility, which is expected to begin operations at the beginning of next year, will operate as Seaport Canaveral LLC. It will have a vast storage capacity -- housing gasoline, diesel fuel, and jet fuel that will help to bring energy independence and new product supply to the growing population base in Florida. Mr. Loya also said that the facility would help to bring energy security to Florida during hurricane season.

Concluding the interview, Mr. Loya said that, "Vitol is on every coast around the world. With its vast reach and resources, Vitol facilitates the trading of oil and oil products between buyers and sellers, bringing liquidity and competition to the global oil markets. This efficiently brings oil and its products to customers where and when they need it, and moves oil and products from surplus markets to deficit markets, such as the United States."

Focus Washington is streamed to subscribers. It is also available atwww.focuswashington.com.

About Vitol

The Vitol Group operates worldwide and is one of the world's largest physical oil trading groups. Vitol's main operations are based in Geneva, Houston, Singapore and London and, in addition to its crude and product trading businesses, has a growing presence in the gas and power, emissions and bio-fuels markets. Vitol also has interests in various oil storage terminals and exploration and production projects worldwide.

For more information about Vitol Inc., visit www.vitol.com.

Embedded Video Available

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Contact:

Matt Lauer
202-683-3127
mlauer@qorvis.com

Chinaoil emerging as major force in crude trading

Interesting report from Reuters on Chinaoil:

Chinaoil emerges as major force in crude trading
26.04.09
Source ::: REUTERS

SINGAPORE: Chinaoil, trading arm of state refiner PetroChina, has been the most active player on crude oil during the Asian Platts window this month, signalling its aim to become a major market force, rivalling peer Unipec.

It is only the third Asian firm, after South Korea’s largest refiner SK Energy and Unipec, trading unit of Asia’s top refiner Sinopec, to actively participate in the trading window dominated by majors such as Shell, BP and Total, as well as large independent traders such as Vitol and Glencore...

The following release was posted on Vitol's web site today:

Trading Market.com

Arawak shares cease trading on London Stock Exchange

Fri. April 24, 2009; Posted: 02:00 AM

ST. HELIER, Jersey, Apr 24, 2009 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX)

Arawak Energy Limited ("Arawak" or the "Company") announces that following the successful offer by Rosco S.A. ("Rosco") to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Arawak, the Company's shares have been delisted from trading on the London Stock Exchange effective 24 April 2009.

On 8 April 2009, Rosco announced that it held approximately 96.91% of Arawak's total issued common share capital following its recommended and increased cash offer (the "Offer") of C$1.00 per Arawak share at the end of January 2009. Rosco, a subsidiary of the Vitol group of companies, has declared its Offer wholly unconditional and has commenced proceedings to compulsorily acquire all the remaining outstanding shares related to the Offer. Arawak shares were delisted from trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on 14 April 2009.

Arawak also announces that executive Directors Alastair McBain and Shahveer Kapadia and non-executive Directors James Coleman, Nicholas Clayton and Alan Duncan have stepped down from the Board. Arawak's new Board comprises David Fransen, Roland Favre and Jacques Sterken, nominees of the Vitol group of companies.

All documentation related to the Offer can be found on www.arawakenergy.com or on www.sedar.com.

Notes to editors

Arawak is engaged in the exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas in Kazakhstan, Russia and Azerbaijan. In Kazakhstan, the Company holds five producing fields and two exploration blocks. The Company has a 40% participating interest in the Saigak producing block acquired in June 2008. The remaining assets are held through its 100% wholly-owned subsidiary Altius Energy Corporation ("Altius"). Altius' main producing field is Akzhar with smaller fields at Besbolek, Karataikyz and Alimbai. The two exploration blocks East Zharkamys III and Tamdykol are also situated in western Kazakhstan. Arawak's producing assets in Russia are held through ZAO PechoraNefteGas ("PNG") and LLC NK Recher-Komi ("Recher-Komi"), in which Arawak has a 50% interest with the remaining interest being held by Lundin Petroleum AB. Also in Russia, Arawak holds a 100% interest in the Kymbozhyuskaya exploration block and in the South Sotchemyu appraisal block. In Azerbaijan, the Company's asset is its interest in the Exploration Development and Production Sharing Agreement ("EDPSA") for the South West Gobustan oil and gas fields. CGL, a company registered in Anguilla, British West Indies, in which the Company has a 37.17% interest, holds an 80% interest in the EDPSA with the remaining 20% held by an affiliate of SOCAR. The remaining 62.83% share in CGL is held by two affiliates of the project operator, CNPC.

For a detailed description of Arawak's business and the risks and uncertainties facing the Company, readers should refer to Arawak's Annual Information Form for the year ended 31 December 2008 and dated 30 March 2009 as filed at www.sedar.com.

SOURCE: Arawak Energy Limited

Arawak Energy Limited, Tel: +44 (0) 20 7973 4285, Tanya Pang, Head of Investor

Relations, Fax: +44 (0) 20 7824 8466, E-mail: info@arawakenergy.com, Web:

www.arawakenergy.com; Brunswick Group LLP, Tel: +44 (0)20 7404 5959, Patrick Handley;

J.P. Morgan Cazenove Limited, Tel: +44 (0)20 7588 2828, Steve Baldwin, Neil Haycock;

Oriel Securities Limited, Tel: +44 (0)20 7710 7600, Richard Crawley, Natalie

Fortescue

For full details for ABGLF click here.

Vitol Moves in Canada

For information on Vitol's relationship with ArawakEnergy Limited in Canada, check out VitolNews reporting on the issue.

Trafigura inspection spat in Norway

Interesting article in Tradewinds on dispute with Trafigura:  "A UK-based cargo inspector has strongly denied that it provided false information to a Nigerian company currently embroiled in a law suit against oil trader Trafigura Beheer.  ... At the heart of the case is an allegation that the specification, or ‘spec’, of a cargo of automotive gas oil (AGO) bought from Trafigura by local company Felshade International Nigeria last year was not of the required level to sell on."