BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept.24
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
SOCAR Trading, which is the trading arm of Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR is looking at creating a global integrated oil products desk, mirroring the model currently in place to trade crude, SOCAR Trading's chief executive Mariam Almaszade said, Trend reports.
"We used to have a sour crude desk, a heavy crude desk and so on. But now it is one integrated desk, and thanks to this — with all the traders sharing information — we have a much better understanding of which crude grades potential clients may need. And we are thinking of potentially applying the same model to oil products,” she told Argus.
Almaszade also said that despite the world's energy transition to a lower-carbon future, Socar Trading still sees a lot of potential in oil in the short- and medium-term.
"The Covid-19 pandemic has made us change our traditional modus operandi, and almost all Azeri Light crude went to Asia," she said. "In a situation when market fundamentals are not working, we realised that the worst thing that could have happened to us was a high concentration risk," Almaszade said.
"The fact that we have different desks and scenarios and the fact that Socar Trading has offices in Singapore, America and Europe gave us a very good understanding of what was going on." "We understand that there are still quite a lot of positions in crude — and specifically third-party crude — which we have an appetite for," she said.
Socar Trading also acknowledges that "LNG and gas in general will play a significant role in the company's future" amid the energy transition.
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