The Geneva-based trading arm of Azerbaijan's
state oil company Socar is close to signing up a new manager for its
fuel oil trading desk in Singapore, after some initial hiccups in its
fledgling business due to recent staffing issues, a senior executive
said Friday.
Socar recently hired fuel oil trader Avik Ghosh from Matrix
Marine, a Mabanaft subsidiary, following the departure of its residue
trader Chew Nam Kung last month after just a few months into the job.
Socar now plans to have a fully-fledged six-member fuel oil
trading team in Singapore by the end of this year and will be hiring
more traders, blenders and operators. It is also setting up trading
desks in Geneva and the Middle East, as it seeks a share of the bustling
fuel oil business in Asia, especially Singapore--the world's largest
bunkering port with monthly marine fuel sales more than 3.50 million
metric tons.
"We are building a global business. Our objective is to have a
fuel oil trading team from East to West," Anthony Poon, Managing
Director of Socar Trading SA in Singapore, said.
The company hopes to be an active arbitrage player, targeting
end-users, ex-wharf and bunker sellers in Asia and the Middle East,
where it recently commissioned the first phase of a 645,000-cubic-meter
oil products terminal in Fujairah.
"We want to arb cargoes to Singapore. We do have access to
cargoes from the Black Sea and we can bring them from the
Mediterranean," he said.
The company has yet to move its first arbitrage cargo east,
and while the new trading desk has struck a few deals in the Asian fuel
oil market this year, including a cargo it bought from Essar Oil in
February, its presence in the region so far has been limited. This
month, it joined pricing agency Platts' Singapore market on close
assessment process for fuel oil swaps.
Socar also plans to start its own blending operations in
Singapore as its physical trading volumes grow, Mr. Poon said.
"Down the road, we'll be getting storage tanks here [in
Singapore] as well," he said. The process of leasing these units will
coincide with the expansion of the trading team.
The company already has 115,000 cubic meters of dirty storage
tanks in Fujairah, commissioned earlier this year, which will be
primarily used by it.
Socar Trading will likely finish building another 100,000
cubic meters of clean and dirty storage early next year, Mr. Poon said.
The company is also building its clean product trading
business and has one distillate trader based in Singapore, he said.