Vitol is the largest independent commodity trader in the world. It has earned far more profits than its competitors for the second consecutive year, cementing its position as a major player in the global energy market.
According to sources familiar with the results of the company, the privately-owned group, whose London-based chief executive made a net profit of $13bn in 2023.
The net profit is three times greater than the $4bn Vitol reported in 2021. This shows how Vitol has benefitted from the disruption of the energy markets over the last two years.
The west’s response to Russia’s invasion in Ukraine in February of 2022 was sanctions. This led to the largest shift in global commodity flows ever. The price volatility decreased in 2023 but commodity flows remained disrupted.
The size of the realignment cannot be understated, said Russell Hardy in an statement reporting on the 2023 turnover of the group last month. He added that the rerouting Russian product and Houthi attack in the Red Sea “resulted” in “all-time highs for oil products on water”.
Vitol doesn’t release financial results publicly. They are only made available after the Dutch accounts are filed later in the year. The company refused to comment on its profit, which was higher than that of some of the biggest oil producers in the world, including Italy’s Eni.
The statement from last month stated that lower commodity prices caused turnover to fall to $400bn, down from $505bn by 2022. However, the volume of energy products Vitol traded increased by 4% year-on-year.
Gas and liquefied gas volumes grew by 19% and 24% respectively. The group’s volume of refined petroleum products and oil traded per day remained relatively flat at 7.3mn barges.
Trafigura , Vitol’s nearest rival, made profits of $7.2bn during its last financial period, which ended September. Gunvor, a privately owned energy trader, made $1.3bn.
Vitol will pay out a bumper amount to its approximately 450 senior partners in London, Geneva and Houston.
This will also increase the cash Vitol holds to expand its business. According to the last set of accounts, in 2022 the group’s shareholder equity will have doubled to $25.8bn.
Vitol began spending some of its windfall in January, when it launched a €1.7bn offer to buy Italy’s Saras. Saras owns the largest refinery in the Mediterranean, on Sardinia. In the past year, its Turkish subsidiary Petrol Ofisi acquired BP’s downstream operations in Turkey. Vitol, through Vivo Energy, will own 3,900 petrol stations in Africa.
Vitol in the UK owns and runs five plants via its partly owned subsidiary VPI. This makes it a larger power generator than Centrica. VPI is also building three additional power plants in the area — two in the UK, and one in Ireland.