LONDON/MOSCOW: Trafigura is expanding its ties with Russia's Rosneft and is likely to become its biggest buyer next year when the Swiss commodities trader adds refined products to its already huge purchases of crude oil.
Trafigura said it had agreed to purchase additional volumes from Rosneft from January, mainly refined products.
The company declined to disclose details. Trading sources estimated the total volumes at 20 million tonnes, equal to an entire annual output of two large refineries or enough to meet
consumption of a country such as Spain for half a year.
"The marketing and supply arrangements cover refined products and were agreed on market terms after a competitive tender process. The transactions are fully compliant with international sanctions and no pre-financing is involved," a senior Trafigura spokesman said.
Over the past year, Trafigura has been buying 20 million tonnes of crude oil from Rosneft and the addition of refined products will make it the single biggest corporate buyer of oil from Russia.
Only China as a country is buying more oil and products from Russia.
Rosneft has been expanding its deals with Trafigura as its own ambitions of creating a major trading division have been curtailed by sanctions imposed by the West on Russia over Moscow's actions in Ukraine.
Last year, Rosneft abandoned plans to buy the oil trading division of U.S. bank Morgan Stanley and since then it has looked for partners to trade its huge resources and generate maximum profits amid low oil prices.
Reuters
