Vitol

Vitol Group of Companies

Type	Private
Industry	Commodity
Founded	1966; 51 years ago (1966) Rotterdam, Netherlands
Founder	Henk Viëtor Jacques Detiger
Headquarters	Geneva, Switzerland
Area served	Global
Key people	Ian Taylor, CEO
Services	Energy trading, Commodity trading
Revenue	US$ 270 billion (2014)
Owner	Vitol Holding B.V
Number of employees	5,441 (2014)
Website	www.vitol.com

The Vitol Group is a global energy and commodity trading company that was founded in Rotterdam in 1966 by Henk Viëtor and Jacques Detiger. Though physical trading, logistics and distribution are at the core of the business, these are complemented by refining, shipping, terminals, exploration and production, power generation, mining and retail businesses. Vitol has almost 40 offices worldwide and its largest operations are in Geneva, Houston, London, and Singapore. With revenues of $270 billion in 2014, it is the largest independent energy trader in the world, and would rank eighth on the Fortune Global 500 list. Because Vitol does not publish its profits widely, much like most of its competitors in commodity trading, it is largely excluded from rankings. But the company does provide financial information to its lenders and some energy groups with which it trades. The company ships more than 270 million tonnes of crude oil per year and controls 200 supertankers and other vessels to move it around the world. On average it handles more than 5 million barrels a day of oil and products - roughly equivalent to the daily consumption of Japan - the world's third largest oil consumer after the United States and China.

The company’s chief executive is Ian Taylor. Vitol is a private company which is owned significantly by a proportion of its employees, who are known for their culture of privacy and secrecy, from both competitors and the general public. In March 2015, the FT suggested that Vitol appeared to make a $1.2 billion dividend distribution. When it comes to the financial industry’s richest and most risk-taking executives, few top those in the world of energy trading.

In addition to the global crude and product trading businesses, the company trades coal, natural gas, power, ethanol, methanol, gasoline, LNG, LPG, naphtha, bitumen, base oils and carbon emissions.