Market Outlook
Vitol and Trafigura: Traders at the heart of Trump’s Venezuela oil grab
Published27 JAN 26 - 08:41
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minutes
“Before the sanctions, China and India were main buyers of Venezuelan crude in Asia as they have big coker units that can process the heavy oil,” Sparta Commodities analyst June Goh said. “That’s an opportunity for the trading houses to re-enter a trade which had been disrupted by US sanctions.”
Bloomberg, January 27, 2025 – Vitol and Trafigura are at the centre of the Trump administration’s push to quickly sell Venezuelan oil, using special licences to move sanctioned barrels and offer them at steep discounts to refiners in the US and Asia. The trade could deliver unusually large profits, but comes with costly storage, financing and freight challenges, and rising political scrutiny as the US prepares to open the market to more competitors.
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