LNG

June 6 (LNGJ) - Trafigura, a market leader in the global commodities industry including LNG, petroleum and other products, said near-term supply chain disruptions would persist including “ongoing threats in the Red Sea” causing markets to remain “vulnerable to sudden shocks and price spikes” in the months ahead. Trafigura, headquartered in Singapore, issued the warning in its half-year earnings report. Trafigura registered a half-year net profit to the end of March of $1.47 billion compared with “an exceptional first-half period in 2023 when the group recorded a net profit of $5.54Bln in “highly volatile” energy markets.

   Revenues in the half-year dropped to $124.19Bln compared with $131.33Bln in the same half-year of 2023. Trafigura said that total traded volumes of oil and petroleum products, including natural gas and LNG, were around 7.2 million barrels per day equivalent, 15 percent above the previous year’s level. “This was mainly due to higher trading volumes in crude oil, driven by our supply and marketing agreements with refineries in Europe,” said the firm. “In non-ferrous metals, volumes were almost unchanged year-on-year at 10.4 million tonnes, while bulk mineral volumes rose 25 percent to 54.7MT due to an increase in iron ore,” added Trafigura.

Vitol, the world’s largest independent commodity trader and owned by several hundred partners, earned $13 billion in net profits for a second year, much higher than other global commodities traders.

Trafigura, the global commodities trading firm, said its traded liquefied natural gas volumes declined slightly in the past year and while market volatility had eased the energy supply chain remained “brittle” amid changing inventories and continuing geopolitical concerns.