Mercuria Energy Group

Mercuria Energy Group Ltd is a privately held Swiss international commodity trading company active in a wide spectrum of global energy markets including crude oil and refined petroleum products, natural gas (including LNG), power, coal, biodiesel, carbon emissions, base metals[8] and agricultural products.[9] In 2014, the company bought the commodities trading arm of J.P. Morgan in a reported US$800 million deal.[10] It is one of the world's five largest independent energy traders and asset operators and is based in Geneva, Switzerland, with 34 additional offices worldwide. Contents 1 History 2 Operations 3 References 4 External links History[edit] Mercuria was started in 2004 by Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi, then executives at Phibro, the commodities trader sold by Citigroup to Occidental Petroleum in 2009. The company focused mostly on oil trading until 2007.[11] During that time Mercuria was called J&S Group after the Ukrainian-Polish businessmen Grigorij Jankilevitsch and Vyacheslav Smolokowski. They and their affiliates founded Mercuria, but gradually withdrew after political turmoil.[12] As the company expanded, it has hired traders and investment professionals from Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Louis Dreyfus Group[13] and Electrabel in London.[14] Mercuria's 2013 revenue was US$112 billion.[15] In January 2016 Mercuria announced that ChemChina had bought a 12% stake in the company.[16] Mercuria also acquired the reorganized Aegean Marine which was renamed Minerva Bunkering.[17] Operations[edit] Mercuria moves about 1.5m barrels of crude and oil products daily, and has upstream and downstream assets ranging from oil reserves in Argentina, Canada and the US, to oil and products terminals in Europe and China, as well as substantial investment in the coal mining industry and bio fuels plants in Germany and the Netherlands.[18] Its subsidiaries include Navitas Energy in Canada[19] and Vesta Terminal Services in Europe,[20] which operates port logistics, storage and processing facilities in the Netherlands, Estonia, Belgium, and Germany. Mercuria, former owner of Vesta Terminal, entered into a joint venture with Sinopec by selling 50% of the terminals in 2013.[21] In November 2010, Mercuria Energy bought MGM International Group from Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc. and MGM International LLC.[22] The Miami, Florida-based MGM International Group is a developer of international projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and trades in global carbon markets.