Vitol and the GOC for eternity?

The oil trading, Vitol  has quietly, sign a long term contract with Gabon oil company (GOC) which represents the interests of the Gabonese State, for the purchase
of light crude oil.

According to information published by the Reuters news agency, from commercial sources,  Vitol comes to sign a long-term contract with Gabon for the export of its oil.

This contract is a masterstroke for Vitol, like its peers in the brokerage of crude, Glencore and Gunvor, has intensified its efforts to gain access to long-term contracts in order to preserve its volumes despite thin trading profits. According to Reuters, the duration of the contract is not clear, because another source ensures that it is signed for at least three years.

Vitol has received a shipment of 650,000 barrel sweet crude, for a nominal value of 75 million $, on the basis of the current Brent futures. According to these same sources of the oil industry, "these shipments would be attributed in exchange for investment in the oil sector in Gabon and not by cash payments.

"This kind of arrangement is more frequent between the petroleum business and African Governments because of the perceived credit risk. In Nigeria, trading houses such as Vitol and Glencore owe tens of millions of dollars for delays in payments for fuel.

For its part, the Swiss company Vitol declined to comment on this situation and Gabon Oil Company, meanwhile, could not be reached to comment on the information.

Founded in 1966, the Group Vitol whose headquarters are located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands as well as in Geneva, Switzerland, operates worldwide and is one of the first three oil brokerage firms with Glencore and Gunvor gross to the world. With revenues of more than 150 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, the company ships more than 200 million tonnes of oil per year. It operates mainly in Geneva, Houston, Singapore and London and, in addition to its business of dealing in crude oil and derivatives, Vitol thrives also on gas, electricity, emissions and biofuels markets. It also has interests in various terminals storage of petroleum, exploration and production project in the world. The latter includes shareholding in Arawak, with production centres located in Russia, the Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, shareholding in Galoc in the Philippines and exploration assets in Congo and Ghana.