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Adnoc bolsters trading JV with external hires

  • Märkte: Crude oil, Oil products
  • 02.09.20

External hires have brought Abu Dhabi state-owned Adnoc's trading joint venture a step closer to becoming a fully fledged oil trading operation, following in the footsteps of Saudi Aramco's trading arm ATC.

Adnoc Global Trading (AGT) — a joint venture between Adnoc, Italy's Eni and Austria's OMV — has recruited Philipp Pluch as a senior crude trader, according to market sources. Pluch worked at OMV for 12 years, joined the firm's crude operations in 2013 and handled trade of Black Sea and light sweet Mediterranean crude supplies, according to his Linkedin profile. OMV declined to comment on "individual job positions".

AGT also recently employed Mukul Bapat as a crude trader, according to market sources. Bapat's Linkedin profile lists him as having joined Adnoc last month, after working for two years on Shell's crude desk in Singapore and for seven years as a crude trader for Indian refiner Reliance.

AGT was established with a mandate to sell Adnoc Refining's exports and was slated to begin physical and derivatives trading over the course of 2020. Sources say it is primarily focused on oil products trading, but one market participant said it could also venture into third-party crude trading, in addition to supplying the Abu Dhabi refining system.

AGT had initially intended to begin trading operations in the second quarter of this year, but hiring delays and logistical complications caused by the Covid-19 pandemic stalled the process, according to market sources.

Adnoc confirmed to Argus in July that AGT had yet to begin trading activities. "We are on track in establishing the required processes, procedures and systems. Our trading team are already optimising our system flows (crude, feedstock and product optimization) and as our new trading systems are finalised, we will ramp up our activities," the company said at the time.

AGT will operate independently of Adnoc, which oversees term crude contracts for the UAE's Murban, Upper Zakum, Umm Lulu and Das Blend grades. Market participants say AGT has already moved to an Abu Dhabi-based office separate from the main Adnoc premises.

Adnoc's move into oil trading follows a path set by its Saudi Arabian counterpart. Aramco's ATC now operates offices in Dhahran, Singapore, Fujairah and London. It has grown extensively over the past few years, hiring traders from Aramco refining subsidiary Motiva Enterprises and from external trading firms. ATC crude traders can only sell third-party crude supplies, and do not infringe on the domestic crude volumes that Aramco markets exclusively on a term basis.


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