ABSTRACT

The day-to-day world of crude oil traders is not usually open to outsiders. Few non-specialists appreciate how oil traders approach the markets, what their backgrounds are and how they make money.

This book brings the oil trading world to vivid life by introducing the reader to 40 real-life trades or strategies that were carried out by named market participants. The 40 chapters cover different geographies and different crude oil markets, providing an unparalleled insight into how crude oil traders work and think. Oil trading developed in its current form in the 1980s and the chapters cover these early beginnings through to the present day. The trades have been grouped in sections that relate to the nature of each trade and its broader use as an example of a successful trading style. Sections cover approaches to arbitrage trading; the impact of geopolitics; logistics and storage plays; short-term versus longer term trading; managing new crude oil grades; trading crude oil derivatives.

The book provides plenty of inspiration for current or prospective crude oil traders or analysts. It will also be valuable for academic researchers, business school case studies, and for anyone wanting to learn more about the individuals that shape the world’s most important commodity market.

chapter |8 pages

Introduction

part |40 pages

Trading arbitrages

chapter 1|5 pages

Night flight to Siberia

chapter 2|6 pages

A sweet deal

chapter 3|6 pages

Where physical meets paper

chapter 4|6 pages

A false arbitrage

chapter 5|5 pages

A Russian arbitrage strategy

chapter 6|5 pages

Leveraging local knowledge

chapter 7|6 pages

Finding the global optimal

part |33 pages

Macro & micro trading

chapter 8|6 pages

Calling a collapse

chapter 9|5 pages

Learning from misfortune

chapter 10|6 pages

Facing a force majeure

chapter 11|4 pages

Trading the micro structure

chapter 12|6 pages

Financing oil traders

chapter 13|5 pages

Starting from ‘why not’

part |32 pages

Spot versus term trading

chapter 14|5 pages

Publish and circulate

chapter 15|5 pages

Bringing indexation to Russia

chapter 16|6 pages

Updating the NOC model

chapter 17|5 pages

Flexibility of supply

chapter 18|5 pages

Turning weakness into strength

chapter 19|5 pages

The value of persistence

part |35 pages

Logistics and storage trading

chapter 20|5 pages

Preserving pipeline economics

chapter 21|6 pages

A U.S. pipeline frenzy

chapter 22|5 pages

Finding interesting niches

chapter 23|5 pages

Smoothing logistics

chapter 24|6 pages

Trading floating storage

chapter 25|7 pages

Trading around strategic storage assets

part |36 pages

Trading new crude oil grades

chapter 26|6 pages

Marketing the first Brent

chapter 27|5 pages

Flexibility plays

chapter 28|5 pages

Refining the first Norwegian oil

chapter 29|6 pages

Marketing a new stream

chapter 30|7 pages

Splitting Basrah

chapter 31|6 pages

Asia's shift to sour

part |33 pages

Trading crude oil derivatives

chapter 32|6 pages

WTI proves itself

chapter 33|6 pages

From floor to screen

chapter 34|5 pages

Bringing Brent onscreen

chapter 35|5 pages

Trading opaque markets

chapter 36|6 pages

Trading as a calling card

chapter 37|4 pages

A chart for success

part |18 pages

Trading crude oil options

chapter 38|6 pages

Trading on behalf of a nation

chapter 39|5 pages

The invention of synthetic storage

chapter 40|6 pages

Making a major shift