Exxon losing veteran oil traders recruited during past expansion
Exxon Mobil Corp has lost two veteran crude oil traders from its U.S. energy trading group and a third is leaving its British unit, according to people familiar with the matter, in a continued exodus of top talent from the oil major.
Exxon last year reversed course on an expansion of its oil
and petroleum products trading as fuel demand tumbled during the pandemic. The
company suffered a $22.4 billion loss in 2020, leading to deep job and cost
cuts across the business.
Veteran oil traders Michael Paradise and Adam Buller, both
of whom joined Exxon in 2019 after lengthy careers elsewhere, resigned last
week, the people said. Paul Butcher, an oil trader in Britain, plans to leave
in September, another person familiar with the operation said.
Butcher was recruited in 2018 as a North Sea crude oil
trader and adviser on accounting for transactions to its Leatherhead unit near
London. He had previously worked for BP Plc, Glencore Plc and Vitol SA.
Exxon declined to comment on the departures, citing
personnel matters.
“We’re pleased with our progress over the past couple of
years to grow our team and capabilities,” said spokesman Casey Norton. Exxon’s
scale and reach “give our trading teams a broad footprint and unique knowledge
and insights” that can generate value for shareholders.
VETERAN DEPARTURES
Paradise was a highly regarded crude oil trader who joined
Exxon from Noble Group and was previously director of crude oil trading at
Citigroup Inc and BNP Paribas. Buller joined Exxon in late 2019 after trading
oil for Petrolama Energy Canada and Spain’s Repsol SA. He earlier was director
of international oil trading at BG Group.
Both will join Pilot Flying J, a closely-held Knoxville,
Tennessee, company that operates retail refueling centers in North America. It
has expanded into crude marketing, fuel transportation and storage and has is
own trading unit run by a former Noble Group executive.
A spokesperson at Pilot Flying J declined to comment.
Exxon recruited Paradise, Buller and a cadre of experienced
traders from rivals and international oil trading firms hoping to replicate BP
and Royal Dutch Shell’s success in trading. It initially saw the expansion as a
way to profit from its knowledge of customer demand, oil production, pipelines and
fuel shipping.
BP and Shell’s trading groups took advantage of last year’s
market volatility to generate enormous trading profits, buying oil as it fell
below $20 a barrel last spring. They sold it at higher prices for future
delivery, posting multibillion-dollar profits for the year.
But Exxon pulled back trading as the market dropped and
sought to preserve its capital to sustain its shareholder dividend while rivals
cut their payouts.
Exxon systematically avoided risk by pulling most of the
capital needed for speculative trades, subjecting most trades to high-level
management review, and limiting some traders to working only with longtime
Exxon customers.
It later laid off some staff and offered early retirement
packages to others, Reuters reported. Exxon does not separately report the
performance of its trading unit.
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