Vitol posts record profit of $4.2bn

Bloomberg

Vitol Group, the world’s largest independent oil trading company, posted a record profit of $4.2 billion last year as it benefited from soaring energy prices.
Those earnings allowed it to hand a record $3 billion to its executives and senior staff through share buybacks during the course of the year, according to the company’s audited
annual accounts, seen by Bloomberg News.
Big energy traders like Vitol are enjoying the most profitable period in history, as skyrocketing prices and disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine provide a panoply of opportunities to make money. Rivals including Trafigura Group and Glencore Plc have also
reported record trading profits.
Vitol said in a management report appended to the accounts that on the basis of its first-quarter results, “we expect to achieve a reasonable result in 2022.”
Vitol, which last year bought a 5% stake in Vostok Oil, the flagship project of Russia’s state oil champion Rosneft PJSC, said in the management report that it “is divesting” its holding in Vostok.