> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://blog.financely.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # History of Vitol and How It Became an Energy Giant - URL: https://blog.financely.io/history-of-vitol-and-how-it-became-an-energy-giant/ - Published: 2026-09-02T11:40:19.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-02T11:40:19.000Z - Description: How Vitol grew from a Rotterdam fuel oil trader into the world’s largest independent energy merchant through trading, logistics, finance and strategic assets. - Author: Financely Debt Advisors - Tags: History Energy Trading | Commodity Markets | Corporate History ## How Vitol Became the World’s Largest Independent Energy Trader **Vitol started in Rotterdam in 1966 trading fuel oil barges through the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp market and up the Rhine. Sixty years later, it moves around eight million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products every day.** The company became enormous through physical trading, relationships, working capital and logistics. It built offices at the major trading hubs, financed producers and customers, chartered thousands of voyages, accumulated storage at strategic locations, bought refineries where they strengthened flows and expanded downstream into fuel distribution. Vitol kept the merchant operation at the center of the company throughout that expansion. ### Table of Contents 1. [Vitol’s Origins in Rotterdam](#origins) 2. [The Fuel Oil Business](#fuel-oil) 3. [Building an International Network](#international) 4. [The Move Into Crude Oil](#crude) 5. [The Ian Taylor Era](#taylor) 6. [The Merchant Model](#merchant) 7. [Financing Physical Energy](#finance) 8. [Shipping and Logistics](#shipping) 9. [Why Vitol Built Storage](#storage) 10. [Strategic Refining](#refining) 11. [Building Vivo Energy](#vivo) 12. [Expansion Into Australia](#australia) 13. [Gas and LNG](#gas) 14. [Power Trading](#power) 15. [Private Ownership](#private) 16. [How Volatility Creates Opportunity](#volatility) 17. [The 2022 Energy Crisis](#2022) 18. [Compliance and Bribery Case](#compliance) 19. [The New Asset Expansion](#assets) 20. [Vitol Today](#today) 21. [How Vitol Built Its Position](#formula) ## Vitol Started With Fuel Oil in Rotterdam Vitol was founded in Rotterdam in 1966 by Henk Viëtor and Jacques Detiger. The original business was remarkably specific. It traded fuel oil barges in the ARA market and moved product up the Rhine. That meant buying physical fuel, arranging barges, understanding refinery output, storage, specifications, freight and customer requirements, then managing the timing between purchase and final sale. The company therefore began with the mechanics that still define commodity merchants today: physical product, logistics, credit and price risk. Rotterdam gave Vitol an ideal starting point. It was already one of the major refining, storage and transshipment centers of European petroleum markets. ## Fuel Oil Was a Logistics Business as Much as a Trading Business A barrel of fuel oil has different economics depending on where it sits, which specification it meets, when it can be delivered and which customer can use it. Those differences create trading margins. Fuel oil also requires storage and blending knowledge. Refinery residues vary by sulfur, viscosity and other characteristics. Cargoes can be combined to manufacture a specification required by a power plant, industrial user or marine customer. The early Vitol traders learned to capture value between those physical constraints. That expertise later transferred naturally into crude oil, refined products, bunker fuels, LPG, LNG and other energy markets. ## Vitol Expanded Internationally Early The company moved beyond Rotterdam almost immediately. It opened an office in Zug, Switzerland in 1968 and London in 1969. A U.S. presence followed in 1974. Singapore followed in 1979. The Swiss business eventually moved to Geneva, which became one of the major centers of the global commodity trading industry. Bahrain opened in 1982. The geographic strategy mirrored the underlying trade routes. Europe connected refining and consumption. The United States brought access to another enormous crude and products market. Singapore became a natural base for Asian petroleum trading. The Middle East sat close to some of the world's largest oil production and export flows. ## A Short History of Vitol 1966 Vitol is founded in Rotterdam and begins trading fuel oil barges through the ARA market and Rhine system. 1968 Vitol opens its first Swiss office in Zug. 1969 The company opens in London. 1974 Vitol establishes a presence in the United States. 1979 Singapore becomes part of the network as Asian energy markets grow. 1985 Ian Taylor joins and establishes Vitol's crude oil trading business. 1995 Ian Taylor becomes chief executive. Vitol's turnover doubles during the 1990s to around USD 20 billion. 2006 Vitol establishes VTTI to build and operate strategically located energy storage infrastructure. 2007 Vitol acquires a majority interest in the Fujairah refinery, deepening its presence near a major Middle Eastern oil and bunkering hub. 2011 Vitol and Helios launch Vivo Energy with Shell assets across African downstream markets. 2012 Vitol develops Varo Energy around European refining, wholesale and distribution assets. 2014 Vitol agrees to acquire Shell's Australian downstream business, including the Geelong refinery and approximately 870 retail sites. 2018 Russell Hardy becomes Group CEO while Ian Taylor moves to Chairman. 2022 Extreme energy-market disruption produces the most profitable year in Vitol's history. 2024 Vitol acquires Saras in Italy, expands Vivo Energy through Engen and agrees to acquire Noble Resources. 2025 Vitol delivers 605 million tonnes of oil equivalent across its energy businesses and eight million barrels per day of crude and petroleum products. 2026 Vitol marks its 60th anniversary as the largest independent energy trader by oil volume. ## Ian Taylor Helped Build the Crude Oil Franchise Ian Taylor joined Vitol in 1985 and established the company's crude oil trading business. This was a major expansion beyond its original fuel-oil specialty. Crude trading requires relationships at both ends of the refinery system. On one side sit national oil companies, upstream producers and governments selling production. On the other sit refiners seeking the right crude quality at the right time and location. A merchant between them needs to understand API gravity, sulfur, refinery configurations, shipping economics, regional benchmarks, quality differentials and available substitutes. Scale in crude then produces opportunities throughout the products market because traders can see the economics of feedstock and refinery output simultaneously. ## The Ian Taylor Era Created Massive Scale Ian Taylor became CEO in 1995. Vitol's turnover was around USD 20 billion by the end of that decade. Its activities expanded into metals, sugar, insurance, refining and the former Soviet Union. The following decade produced even greater growth. Turnover increased from approximately USD 37 billion in 2000 to USD 144 billion in 2009. The expansion reflected rising global energy consumption, deeper physical trading volumes and a widening network of suppliers and customers. Vitol also started building infrastructure specifically selected to reinforce its trading positions. ## Vitol Built a Merchant Rather Than an Industrial Empire This distinguishes Vitol from companies such as Glencore. Glencore accumulated enormous mining operations alongside its commodity marketing business. Vitol remained more selective. Trading continued to determine where capital was deployed. A refinery could make sense because it created feedstock demand and product supply at an important trading hub. A terminal created storage and blending optionality. A retail network created a permanent outlet for fuel. A power plant linked gas, power and emissions markets. An upstream interest could create long-term physical crude or gas exposure. **Vitol's infrastructure portfolio grew around commodity flows. The merchant franchise remained the center of gravity.** ## The Trader Sits Between Producer and Consumer Vitol buys from national oil companies, refiners, producers and other market participants. It sells to refiners, utilities, airlines, industrial companies, wholesalers, retail networks and other customers. The spread between those relationships can contain several sources of margin. ### Location A commodity can be worth more in one region than another after freight and handling. ### Time Storage allows a merchant to move supply between periods when forward economics justify the carrying cost. ### Quality Blending can transform available components into the specification required by a customer. ### Logistics Access to ships, terminals, pipelines and storage can create execution advantages during disruption. ## Finance Became Part of Vitol's Commercial Offering Large commodity merchants deploy their balance sheets as part of origination. A producer may have a valuable stream of crude, refined product, coal or metal while needing liquidity before delivery. A merchant can advance capital through prepayment or another secured arrangement and receive future supply or marketing rights. The financing earns a return and can secure physical volume. Vitol today explicitly describes its balance sheet as a tool for pre-financing and investment opportunities. The same logic appears throughout modern [commodity finance](https://www.financely-group.com/commodity-finance?ref=blog.financely.io). ## Financing Can Create Offtake Assume an independent producer needs USD 100 million to develop or maintain production. A trading company can provide capital directly or arrange a structured facility alongside banks and private lenders. The commercial package may include a multi-year offtake agreement giving the trader rights to market part of the producer's output. The trader has now converted balance-sheet capacity into future supply. That supply feeds the global marketing book. Vitol uses similar integrated approaches today across energy and, increasingly, metals, where financing and offtake can sit inside the same relationship. ## Shipping Is Central to the Model Energy trading turns into logistics the moment a physical cargo is purchased. Crude from West Africa needs a vessel. Diesel moving from the Middle East to Europe needs tonnage, insurance, scheduling and terminal capacity. LNG requires specialized carriers and access to liquefaction and regasification infrastructure. Vitol charters more than 6,000 sea voyages annually. Shipping intelligence therefore feeds directly into trading decisions. Freight rates can open or close geographic arbitrage. Vessel scarcity can transform the economics of a trade. Port congestion can strand inventory. A refinery outage can redirect cargoes across continents. The company built shipping capability as an integrated part of trading rather than treating freight as an administrative function. ## Storage Creates Physical Optionality Vitol established VTTI in 2006 to develop and operate storage infrastructure. Storage gives a physical trader choices. Product can be held before sale. Different components can be blended. Cargoes can be accumulated before loading larger vessels. Supply can be positioned close to customers. A trading desk can react quickly when a regional shortage appears. By 2009, VTTI already controlled millions of cubic meters of storage at strategic locations. Vitol later brought in infrastructure investors as partners, recycling capital while retaining exposure to the commercial network surrounding those terminals. ## Fujairah Shows the Logic Vitol acquired a majority interest in the Fujairah Refining Company in 2007. Fujairah sits on the Gulf of Oman outside the Strait of Hormuz and has become one of the world's most important bunkering and oil-storage locations. Vitol combined refinery capacity, storage and marine access in a location sitting beside major Middle Eastern export flows. That infrastructure could support crude supply, product blending, bunker fuel, storage and regional distribution. The value extended beyond the refinery's standalone processing margin. ## Vitol Uses Refineries as Trading Assets A refinery gives a commodity trader several forms of optionality. The crude slate can change when relative feedstock prices move. Product yields respond to market conditions and refinery configuration. Output can feed the merchant's own distribution network. The trading business can optimize inventories before and after processing. By 2025, Vitol had interests representing around 1.2 million barrels per day of refining capacity across Asia, Australia, Europe and the Middle East. The portfolio includes the large Sarroch refinery in Sardinia following the acquisition of Saras, alongside other strategically located facilities. ## Vivo Energy Took Vitol Directly to African Consumers In 2011 Vitol and Helios Investment Partners reached an agreement with Shell to acquire most of Shell's downstream businesses across a group of African markets. The platform became Vivo Energy. The original transaction covered retail, commercial fuels, LPG, lubricants, bitumen, aviation and marine businesses across numerous countries. Vivo initially operated more than 1,300 service stations under the Shell brand. The platform gave Vitol something commodity traders value highly: demand. Instead of depending entirely on third-party customers to absorb products, Vitol gained exposure to a large downstream distribution system serving motorists, industrial users, airlines and commercial customers. ## A Trading Company With Its Own Distribution Outlet This creates powerful commercial integration. Vitol's trading desks can source products internationally. Shipping moves those products to regional markets. Storage manages inventory. Vivo distributes fuel through thousands of service stations and commercial channels. The retail margin represents only one part of the economic value. The network also gives Vitol a durable outlet for physical barrels. ## Vivo Energy Kept Expanding Shell later sold its remaining stake, leaving Vitol and Helios with full ownership. Vivo subsequently expanded into more markets and added additional retail sites. The company eventually became publicly listed before later returning to private ownership. The acquisition of Engen transformed the scale again, creating a pan-African downstream platform with thousands of service stations. By 2025 Vitol's global downstream investments included more than 10,000 service stations. ## Australia Followed the Same Pattern In 2014 Vitol agreed to acquire Shell's Australian downstream business for approximately USD 2.6 billion. The transaction included the Geelong refinery, approximately 870 service stations and bulk fuels, bitumen, chemicals and other distribution activities. The business became Viva Energy Australia. Again, the asset package linked refinery supply, storage, wholesale distribution and retail demand. The trader gained an integrated physical system within a major developed energy market. ## Varo Energy Strengthened Northwest Europe Vitol also built Varo Energy around European refining and distribution assets. Its early portfolio included the Cressier refinery in Switzerland and other downstream businesses. Varo later expanded across Northwest Europe. The strategy again paired trading with assets capable of improving sourcing, processing and distribution. In 2025 Varo's acquisition of Swedish refiner Preem further increased the scale of the European platform. ## Vitol Expanded Into Natural Gas and LNG Global gas trading requires a different physical system from oil. Pipelines create regional markets. LNG connects those markets by turning natural gas into a seaborne commodity. A successful LNG merchant needs long-term supply, shipping, regasification access, customer contracts and the ability to optimize cargoes between regions. Vitol built these capabilities over several decades. By 2025 its LNG volumes had increased to approximately 23 million tonnes. The business combines long-term agreements with shorter-term optimization, allowing cargoes to respond to changes in regional gas prices and customer demand. ## LNG Multiplied the Value of Global Optionality An LNG cargo can have several possible destinations. The economically optimal market can change while the vessel is at sea. European gas prices may rise relative to Asian prices. Weather can suddenly increase demand. A nuclear outage may pull more gas into power generation. A pipeline disruption can tighten one regional market. A merchant with supply, ships, terminal access and customers can monetize those changes. ## Power Was the Next Logical Market Electricity connects fuel trading with generation. Gas-fired power plants consume natural gas and sell electricity. The economics depend on gas prices, power prices, carbon allowances, plant efficiency and grid conditions. Vitol built a significant power trading presence and invested in generation through platforms including VPI. Its current generation investments total around 8 GW across assets operational and under construction, split approximately between thermal and renewable capacity. Battery storage has added another layer of flexibility. ## Trading Across Molecules and Electrons The merchant can now observe several interconnected markets. Gas prices affect power generation. Renewable output affects gas-fired dispatch. Carbon prices influence marginal generation costs. Battery storage captures intraday power spreads. LNG connects regional gas prices. These relationships create cross-commodity trading opportunities that barely existed when Vitol started moving fuel oil barges in 1966. ## Private Ownership Became a Competitive Advantage Vitol remains privately held and largely employee owned. This is one of the largest structural differences between Vitol and Glencore. Glencore listed publicly in 2011 partly because its industrial ambitions required permanent equity capital at a different scale. Vitol has continued to generate enough capital internally and maintain enough access to bank credit to remain private. Employee ownership creates powerful economic alignment. Senior people can build significant personal wealth from the long-term value of the company rather than relying entirely on annual bonuses. Vitol uses annual share buybacks to provide liquidity to employee shareholders. ## Private Ownership Also Protects Commercial Information Commodity trading benefits from discretion. Positions, supply contracts, customer relationships and market views all carry commercial value. A privately held company has fewer public reporting obligations than a listed corporation. That gives Vitol greater privacy around profitability, trading positions and individual asset economics. The group still publishes turnover, physical volumes and selected operating metrics, while detailed earnings historically reach the public mainly through company filings and reporting based on people familiar with its accounts. ## Balance Sheet Strength Creates Trading Power Commodity markets periodically require enormous amounts of liquidity. High oil prices increase the dollar value of every cargo. Exchange margin calls can rise sharply during volatile markets. Producers seek pre-financing. Customers may request longer payment terms. Storage ties up working capital. A strong balance sheet lets the merchant continue operating when weaker competitors have to reduce positions. Vitol explicitly emphasizes conservative financial management and its ability to deploy capital quickly. ## A Cargo Can Consume USD 100 Million Before It Produces Cash Consider a two-million-barrel crude cargo at USD 75 per barrel. The gross cargo value reaches USD 150 million. The trader may have to fund the purchase before final collection from the refinery. Freight, insurance, hedging margin and other costs create additional liquidity requirements. Multiply that by hundreds of simultaneous physical positions and the funding requirement becomes enormous. This is why [commodity trade finance](https://www.financely-group.com/how-to-structure-a-commodity-finance-deal?ref=blog.financely.io) sits so close to the core economics of physical trading. ## Vitol Makes More Money When Markets Become Difficult Physical merchants generally benefit from dislocation. A refinery outage can create a product shortage. Sanctions can force established trade routes to reorganize. War can increase freight and insurance costs. Pipeline outages can alter regional gas pricing. Weather can create sudden demand. Inventory becomes more valuable when replacement supply takes longer to arrive. A merchant with information, liquidity and logistics can react to those changes. ## Price Direction Is Only Part of the Trading Opportunity A merchant can make money even when the outright commodity price falls. What matters are spreads. Brent versus Dubai. Gasoline versus crude. Europe versus Asia. Prompt delivery versus future delivery. High-sulfur versus low-sulfur fuel. Physical cargo versus futures. Freight-adjusted values across regions. The company continuously optimizes among these relationships while hedging unwanted flat-price exposure. That mechanism sits behind much of what Financely covers in its analysis of [how money is made in physical oil trading](https://www.financely-group.com/how-money-is-actually-made-in-oil-trading?ref=blog.financely.io). ## The 2022 Energy Crisis Produced Extraordinary Profits Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine forced a rapid restructuring of global oil, gas and refined-product flows. Europe sought alternatives to Russian energy. Russian barrels moved toward Asia through new trading routes. Natural gas prices rose dramatically. LNG became central to European energy security. Freight routes lengthened. Refining and product spreads became highly volatile. Few companies were better positioned for this environment than Vitol. ## Vitol Earned Around USD 15 Billion in 2022 Vitol's turnover rose to more than USD 500 billion in 2022. Reuters and the Financial Times reported net profit of approximately USD 15 billion, around as much as the company had earned during the previous six years combined. It followed with another exceptional result of roughly USD 13 billion in 2023. These numbers show the embedded option value of a global physical trading network during extreme market disruption. ## Employee Ownership Turned Those Profits Into Fortunes Vitol distributes capital to employee shareholders through share buybacks. Billions of dollars flowed to those shareholders following the 2022 and 2023 trading boom. The structure creates a powerful retention mechanism. A successful trader or executive can accumulate ownership over a career and participate in the economics of the entire group. The model also encourages senior staff to think about balance-sheet survival because much of their own wealth is exposed to the company. ## Vitol's History Also Includes Serious Compliance Failures A complete history needs to include the legal cases that accompanied its trading expansion. In 2020, Vitol Inc. agreed to pay more than USD 135 million to resolve a U.S. foreign bribery case and a parallel Brazilian investigation. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Vitol admitted schemes involving payments to officials in Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico. The Petrobras conduct included payments made in exchange for confidential pricing and competitor information. The company also reached a related resolution with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. ## Trading Culture Creates Governance Risk Physical commodity businesses give individual traders substantial discretion. They negotiate in markets where large amounts of value can depend on information, relationships and government-controlled supply. That environment requires strong controls around agents, intermediaries, payments, gifts, information and state-owned counterparties. Vitol strengthened its compliance framework following the enforcement cases. The episode illustrates the institutional challenge of converting an entrepreneurial trading partnership into a global organization operating across dozens of jurisdictions. ## Russell Hardy Became CEO in 2018 Russell Hardy joined Vitol in 1993 after working at BP. He spent years in trading and management roles across Singapore and London before becoming chief executive in 2018. Ian Taylor moved to Chairman. The leadership transition preserved the practice of promoting senior executives who had spent much of their careers inside the company and physical energy markets. ## Vitol Has Accelerated Asset Investment Again Recent profits gave the company substantial capital for acquisitions. Vitol has deployed part of that capital into infrastructure that expands the reach of its trading business. In 2024 it acquired control of Saras, including the roughly 300,000-barrel-per-day Sarroch refinery in Sardinia. Vivo Energy completed its combination with Engen. Petrol Ofisi expanded through BP's Turkish retail business. Vitol also acquired Noble Resources, adding an Asian-focused commodity platform active in coal, metallurgical coke and other raw materials. ## The Move Into Metals Is Growing Vitol's historical strength lies in energy. Its metals platform has expanded considerably. The company now trades copper concentrates, anodes, cathodes, iron ore and other materials. The commercial model is familiar. Source from producers. Provide market access. Arrange financing where appropriate. Manage transport. Sell into smelters, mills and industrial customers. The Noble Resources acquisition adds established Asian relationships and raw-material flows to that strategy. ## Financing and Offtake Work in Metals Too Vitol can finance a producer while obtaining export marketing rights. That model converts private credit into physical origination. A metals trader with balance-sheet capacity can offer a mining company financing, energy supply, logistics and marketing within one commercial relationship. This resembles the integrated structures used in [metals trade finance](https://www.financely-group.com/metals-trade-finance-advisory-lcs-sblcs-borrowing-base?ref=blog.financely.io), where credit and physical commodity flows often sit inside the same mandate. ## Vitol Today Sixty years after its creation, Vitol operates at a scale few companies in global commerce can match. | 2025 Metric | Vitol | | -------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | Turnover | USD 343 billion | | Total energy delivered | 605 million tonnes of oil equivalent | | Crude oil and petroleum products | 8 million barrels per day | | Refining capacity | 1.2 million barrels per day | | Storage capacity | Approximately 24 million cubic meters | | Service stations | 10,000+ | | Power generation invested | Approximately 8 GW operational and under construction | | Upstream production | Approximately 93,000 boe per day | | Long-term assets | More than USD 13 billion reported in the 2025 review | Its physical oil scale alone is extraordinary. Eight million barrels per day represents a meaningful share of global crude and petroleum-product commerce. Yet Vitol remains organized around trading rather than the industrial structure of an oil major. ## Vitol Compared With an Oil Major An integrated oil major begins with reserves and production. It develops fields, operates refineries and sells its resulting products. Vitol begins from the market. Its traders can buy from whichever producer offers the best economic barrel, process through owned or third-party capacity, use leased or owned storage and sell to whichever market offers the strongest netback. That flexibility allows capital to move more quickly than in a traditional industrial organization built around a fixed asset base. ## Vitol Compared With Glencore | Vitol | Glencore | | ---------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Core heritage in oil and energy trading | Core heritage in metals, minerals and oil trading | | Remains privately held | Publicly listed | | More selective industrial ownership | Large direct mining footprint | | Major exposure to refining, terminals and downstream | Major exposure to mines, smelters and processing | | Trading remains dominant strategic center | Industrial and marketing businesses both operate at enormous scale | | Very large energy, LNG and power presence | Very large metals, coal and mining presence | ## How Vitol Became So Powerful ### It Started With Physical Knowledge Fuel oil barges taught the company that commodity value depends on specification, location, logistics and timing. ### It Expanded Into Every Major Trading Center Rotterdam, Geneva, London, Houston, Singapore and the Middle East gave Vitol local access to the world's major energy flows. ### It Built Relationships With Both Ends of the Market Producers need distribution and financing. Refiners and consumers need reliable supply. Vitol positioned itself between them. ### It Used Its Balance Sheet Commercially Pre-financing can secure long-term supply and deepen customer relationships. ### It Built Logistics Around Trading Ships, storage, blending and terminals created the ability to move physical energy when routes and prices changed. ### It Bought Assets That Created Trading Optionality Fujairah, VTTI, Varo, Vivo, Viva Energy, Saras and other investments expanded access to supply, processing and end demand. ### It Stayed Private Employee ownership preserved commercial discretion, rewarded senior talent and kept incentives tied closely to group profitability. ### It Maintained Access to Enormous Liquidity Physical trading requires banks and balance sheet. Vitol built both over decades. ### It Performed Best When Markets Became Difficult Dislocations widened spreads and increased the value of logistics, information and capital. ## The Company Is Essentially an Energy Routing System That may be the simplest way to understand Vitol. It has supply relationships, ships, terminals, refineries, power assets, retail stations, financing capacity and thousands of customers. When the market changes, Vitol can redirect energy through that network. A cargo can change destination. A different crude can enter a refinery. Storage can absorb temporary surplus. LNG can move toward the region offering the strongest value. Gas can feed power generation. Refined product can flow through downstream networks. ## The Assets Serve the Flow This principle runs through six decades of Vitol history. Storage was built where traders needed flexibility. Refineries were acquired where they strengthened crude and product flows. Retail businesses created reliable demand. Power assets connected fuel and electricity markets. Production investments provided additional supply. More recently, metals have created another market where logistics, financing and physical origination can be reused. **Vitol became a giant by treating capital, logistics and infrastructure as tools for moving commodities more intelligently than competitors.** ## From Rhine Barges to Eight Million Barrels a Day The scale changed. The basic commercial logic survived. In 1966, Vitol searched for value between fuel oil suppliers and customers along the Rhine. Today its traders search for similar inefficiencies across global crude oil, refined products, LNG, gas, electricity, carbon and metals markets. The modern version requires billions of dollars of liquidity, thousands of voyages, large refining and storage systems and counterparties across nearly every major energy market. The competitive advantage still comes from knowing where the commodity is, where it needs to go, how to finance the journey and how to manage the risks between those two points. ## Finance Physical Commodity Transactions Financely advises commodity traders, producers and industrial companies on structured trade finance, prepayments, borrowing-base facilities, inventory finance, receivables, letters of credit and private credit for physical commodity flows. Submit the commodity, trade route, counterparties, contract value, requested facility, working-capital cycle and available collateral for review. [Request a Financing Quote](https://www.financely-group.com/requestaquote?ref=blog.financely.io)