Trafigura goes upstream
The trading house expands its E&P footprint, but does not want to go down the ‘mini-major’ route
Commodity trading houses have had their traditional middleman model squeezed in recent years due to increased focus from majors and other IOCs on pursuing a portfolio player approach. The NOCs are going more heavily into trading, and natural buyers also moving beyond simply being price-takers. Unsurprisingly, these most commercially savvy market operators are evolving to the new paradigm. A shift to greater involvement in the upstream sector—be it debt financing in exchange for barrels, partnerships, including equity stakes, in producers, or even taking stakes in fields themselves—has been one of the key planks in this shift. Since the start of the year, Singapore-based trader Trafigura ha
Also in this section
25 April 2024
Some companies with assets in Israel have turned towards Egypt as tensions escalate, but others are holding firm despite rising tensions
24 April 2024
But even planned exploration activity is unlikely to reverse declining output from mature fields
23 April 2024
Cheaper Russian barrels and lower overall crude prices have helped cut key oil consumer’s import bills in election year
22 April 2024
Pursuing three different goals as part of the same package may mean achieving none of them