Vitol posts 25 percent drop in profit as market shifts

Bloomberg

Vitol Group, the world’s biggest independent oil trader, suffered a 25 percent drop in annual profit as income from assets sales failed to offset weaker trading results.
Net income fell to $1.5 billion in 2017, from $2 billion the year before, according to a person familiar with Vitol’s results. The energy-trading environment has deteriorated as output curbs by OPEC and its allies upended the oil-price curve, making buy-and-store crude deals less profitable. “It is pretty bloody tough,” Vitol Chairman Ian Taylor said in an interview last week. “And I don’t think anybody is making a lot of money.”
Oil traders are struggling to match earnings in 2015 and 2016, when an oversupplied market meant they could lock in profits by storing crude and selling futures contracts at higher prices. Vitol’s 2016 profit was its third highest in its 50-year history. The 2017 results were first reported by the Financial Times.
Closely held Vitol does not publish its financial results widely, filing with almost a 12-month delay at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce. A Vitol spokeswoman in London declined to comment.
Bloomberg News reported in February that Vitol’s net income for the first nine months of 2017 climbed 8.7 percent to $1.01 billion from a year earlier. First-half profit jumped 50 percent to $818.9 million as the company sold oil pipelines and terminals. However, third-quarter earnings fell by 50 percent to $189 million. Handling more than 7 million barrels of crude and petroleum products a day, closely held Vitol is formally incorporated in Rotterdam with major operations in Geneva, London, Singapore and Houston.