Anonymous ID: 99ff48 March 3, 2019, 8:40 a.m. No.5482077   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>2140 >>2419 >>2640 >>2723

Moar on Mercuria.

Wasn't picked up but whatevs, still results, niggas.

 

Mercuria Crude-Trading Boss Retires With a Warning for Industry

 

After almost three decades on the front lines of global oil trading, the head of crude at Mercuria Energy Group is retiring with a warning about the consequences of the industry’s dramatic growth.

 

Kurt Chapman, a Harvard-educated former U.S. marine who bought and sold North Sea crude, expressed pride in the way trading houses including Mercuria vaulted from relative obscurity to handle millions of barrels a day. Yet he also voiced concerns that the industry, by extending its tendrils deeper than ever into the global market, is likely to draw increased regulatory scrutiny.

relates to Mercuria Crude-Trading Boss Retires With a Warning for Industry

 

Kurt Chapman

Source: Kurt Chapman

 

In the first interview since his retirement late last year, the 55-year-old Chicago native said it was “time for a break” after 29 years of the physical and mental rigors of oil trading. Speaking during a family ski holiday in Verbier, Switzerland, he reflected on the dramatic transformations in the North Sea market, which underpins international benchmark Brent.

 

“I certainly have concerns about the Brent benchmark,” Chapman said. “We are seeing more and more financialization of Brent and a movement away from what the underlying physical value of the commodity is.”

Changing Market

 

Crude futures have recently experienced huge and unexpected price swings. After hitting a four-year high above $86 a barrel in October, Brent plunged below $50 on Dec. 26 and has since surged back to $66. The 30-day historical volatility jumped to the highest in more than two years in the closing days of 2018.

 

The surge in electronic trading, once dominated by investment banks, is now led by hedge funds, Chapman said. This means futures markets are becoming disconnected from the trade in actual cargoes of North Sea crude.

 

“Now everybody is happy to come in and trade electronically on the exchange without having a real understanding of the real business,” he said.

 

A difficult market has prompted overhauls at crude desks at rival trading houses including Gunvor Group Ltd. and Socar Trading SA. The challenge of adapting to volatile markets will be among the topics of discussion as the world’s biggest oil traders and producers gather in London in the coming days for International Petroleum Week, one of the industry’s biggest events.

 

Body too long, rest at sauce.

>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-25/mercuria-crude-trading-boss-retires-with-a-warning-for-industry