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Trading

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Trading

At OQ Trading, our business revolves around commodities trading, marketing and supply chain management.

Incorporated in Dubai in 2006, OQ Trading has successfully established a global presence as one of the world’s major participants in the commodities trading industry – trading approximately 30 million tonnes of energy products each year. We provide logistical solutions and risk management tools to those who require it, facilitating transactions while minimising risk to the parties involved. With a global network of trading offices, ideally located in all the major oil trading regions (Dubai, Houston, Rotterdam, Shanghai and Singapore), we are able to capture value from arbitrage flows and evolving market dynamics, utilising our world-class logistics and supply chain management capabilities.

Wholly owned by the Government of Oman, OQ Trading was initially established under the name Oman Trading International (“OTI”) as a joint venture between Oman Oil Company and a leading international energy trader. Through our heritage, we have developed a world-class operation, enabling the business to compete effectively on a global scale. We seek long-term commercial relationships, reflected in our growing network of trusted suppliers and customers, which include the world’s largest national oil companies as well as refiners, producers, international oil companies and independent trading houses.

As the country’s international commodities trading arm and a fully integrated division of OQ, OQ Trading is not only placed as the exclusive market facing partner to the OQ Upstream and OQ Downstream businesses, but is also a significant lifter of Omani hydrocarbons via non-OQ owned assets including the Ministry of Energy & Minerals and Oman LNG.

Our focus within Oman is on the development of oil and gas-based industries and other energy and energy related projects in partnership with international industry players, capturing and creating incremental margin from optimisation of the value chain in the oil and gas sector. Outside Oman, OQ Trading is actively pursuing commercial ventures in the energy value chain to provide an alternate source of revenue for the Government of Oman.

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Our Trading Portfolio

Explore our 5 main product lines

We focus our trading business on crude oil, refined products, petrochemicals, LNG and dry bulk.

Management profiles

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Management Profiles

Wail Al Jamali

Managing Director - Trading

Wail Al Jamali is Managing Director of OQ Trading, appointed in July 2018. Prior to this role, he was Chief Operating Officer, responsible for trading and front office activities. He holds a Master’s Degree (MEng) in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London and has amassed 15 years’ experience in the Oil and Gas sector. Upon completing his studies, Mr Al Jamali joined Schlumberger in Abu Dhabi as a Field Engineer where he was responsible for logging the wellbore during drilling operations. Mr Al Jamali joined the OQ Group in 2004, joining Sohar Refinery during its construction phase which included on-the-job training at the Korean refiner, GS Caltex. This preparation resulted in him gaining an active role in plant commissioning activities. He soon became Senior Process Engineer responsible for the Crude Distillation Unit operations as well as training and mentoring a group of young Omani field and control panel operators. Mr Al Jamali joined OQ Trading in 2007, working initially as a crude and products operator before moving on to a trading role and then as Head of Products Trading. During his tenure, he has overseen the Products Matrix development across all disciplines including the relevant commercial support functions. In 2010, he spent the year with OQ’s “Program Apple” team that oversaw the mergers to create Orpic as well as place Oman Trading International as its sole international trading arm; handling its refined products imports and exports. He was given the responsiblity of overseeing the company's oil trading in 2016 and was mandated with expanding the crude desk beyond its core activities.

Sam Naylor

CFO - Trading

Sam Naylor is Chief Financial Officer at OQ Trading, responsible for the leadership of the middle and back office functions supporting the marketing and trading activities. He is a UK ACA qualified chartered accountant having completed his chartered accountancy qualification with Deloitte in London, UK and also holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Nottingham. Mr Naylor has over 15 years of experience working with trading companies as an auditor, consultant and within the industry in finance related roles. He started his professional career with Deloitte’s Banking & Securities group in London. During this time, he worked with a number of high profile commodity and energy traders, derivative exchanges, financial institutions and multinational corporates. After moving to Gazprom Marketing & Trading in 2010, Mr Naylor was quickly promoted into a Global Finance leadership role. He joined OQ Trading in January 2014 as Group Financial Controller and was appointed as Chief Financial Officer in February 2015 – responsible for the trade finance, risk management, accounting, reporting, taxation and corporate treasury for OQ Trading's global offices. He is also a director of Hass Petroleum, an East Africa based oil marketing business and OQ investee company.

Said Al Maawali

Executive Director - Middle East

Said Al Maawali is Executive Director – Middle East at OQ Trading, working closely with various Omani stakeholders on existing and new business opportunities. His responsibilities also include the supervision of the dry bulk, LNG, fertilisers, and carbon emissions desks along with assisting in the development of new commercial lines within the company. Having graduated as a Construction Engineer from Iowa State University and with an MBA from the University of Hull in the U.K., his career spans over 20 years and encompasses engineering, marketing, and trading (including initiating and executing Oman's first CDM project under the Kyoto protocol framework).

Dylan Goh

Executive Director - Asia

Dylan Goh is Executive Director – Asia of OQ Trading, based in Singapore. He joined OQ Trading in 2009 and is head of the Petrochemical trading business. Holding a B.A. with Honours from the National University of Singapore, he started his working life at International Enterprise Singapore, a statutory board of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Over the course of his career in the Oil and Petrochemical sector since 1999, he has held several key commercial and trading positions in industry-leading companies such as Shell, BASF and Chevron, both in Singapore and overseas.

Louis Linthorst

Executive Director - Europe

Louis Linthorst is Executive Director - Europe of OQ Trading, based in Rotterdam. In addition to his trading activities, his responsibilities also include heading up the middle distillates and fuel oil books at OQ Trading. He holds a Master's Degree in Economics from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and has over 20 years of experience working in the oil industry in various functions. Before Joining OQ Trading in 2014 he held trading and managerial positions in Shell and Mabanaft, as well as having worked in the commercial and financial functions in Oiltanking.

Performance

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Performance

Our business depends on delivering energy reliably and efficiently, but also profitably. OQ Trading’s financial performance has matched its growth since the first year of operation. This continued strong performance has given us a solid foundation upon which to expand further, well beyond our regional heritage.

OQ Trading has established itself as a significant regional player in the energy and fertiliser markets, with a growing presence globally. The business delivered another successful year of returns in 2022, delivering 35.6 million metric tonnes of oil-equivalent and record profits.

OQ Trading graph Traded Volumes 2018 - 2022 english
OQ Trading graph Traded Volumes by Commodity Group 2022 english

Risk Management

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Risk Management

OQ Trading has a robust risk management framework and control environment in place to mitigate the inherent risks of trading to a tolerable level for the organisation and the appetite of the OQ Group. OQ Trading Executive Management and OQ Trading Oversight Committee set risk appetite through:

  • A group economic capital limit.
  • Portfolio risk limits for different risk classes.
  • An approved risk limit registry comprehensively documenting active trading mandates.

The risk management framework at OQ Trading contains a suite of risk management policies, procedures and delegations. We rigorously apply the following key principles:

  • Compliance with all relevant risk policies and limits are monitored daily by the risk management function.
  • We act on breaches of policy and employ strict escalation procedures to ensure that both OQ and the businesses it operates in are adequately protected.
  • We appraise risk in our transactions and wider business activities on an on-going basis to ensure that actions are taken to address any changes in the risk profile of the group.
  • We ensure management have sufficient timely quantitative and qualitative information regarding the risks within the businesses through daily, weekly and monthly risk reporting.

Through day-to-day trading activities, OQ Trading assumes commodity price risks. Outright price risks inherent in our contracts to purchase or sell physical commodities are systematically hedged either through an offsetting physical position or through the use of financial instruments. Residual basis risk assumed is managed within approved limits. OQ takes a very prudent approach to counterparty credit risk. Limits are assigned by the credit function for all trading counterparties, supported by additional concentration limits across the portfolio. First class security or adequate risk cover is our priority, ensuring the risk of significant financial loss is negligible.

At OQ Trading we have a structured and risk aware approach to conducting business, acknowledging the inherent challenges present in the industry in which we operate. Combined with the depth of expertise and experience within the company, this allows for effective management of exposures, resulting in a reliable and trustworthy trading partner for our counterparties.

Solutions

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Solutions

Having earned a reputation for being a trustworthy and reliable counterparty has enabled us to build long-term strategic relationships with major players (producers and end-users alike) within the industry. With our global reach, exceptional relationships and the expertise of our teams, we can provide our business partners and stakeholders with a wide range of value-added services and business solutions.

Moving commodities in large quantities will involve a variety of activities including sourcing, storing, transporting, blending and delivering. At OQ Trading, we excel at managing the associated risks and complexities.

Sourcing

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Sourcing

We work with an international network of trusted suppliers and business partners with whom we have built strong connections over many years. Our energy products are secured through offtake agreements and long-standing relationships – allowing us to offer and deliver products on time and on-spec.

Marketing

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Marketing

Our expertise and understanding of the market allows us to develop the right blends for our clients using the most appropriate processes. Coordinating with a trusted international network of customers, we are thoroughly experienced in finding the right buyer and working with them to secure the right deal.

Logistics

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Logistics

Transporting energy in a safe, reliable and timely manner is a key component of our business. Our experienced chartering team has access to competitive and flexible shipping, covering the full spectrum of ship sizes, from VLCCs all the way down to coastal barges. Having built strong relationships with the terminal operators, our operations team works closely with them to ensure each transaction is completed smoothly and efficiently. In any given month, OQ Trading manages more than 30 active ship voyages.

In support of OQ’s global footprint, we lease more than 300,000m3 (1.9 million barrels) of clean products storage in the port of Sohar. From this storage, we blend multiple grades of gasoline and diesel for the markets we supply. Moreover, we have access to over 60,000m3 of Petrochemical tank storage in Rotterdam, which provides the flexibility to supply barges to various downstream contractual counterparties in an efficient and timely manner. We deploy a number of other shipping and logistics strategies including making bulk, breaking bulk and storing for future use.

Finance

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Finance

OQ has recognised that in a constantly maturing and truly global industry, the optimal financing solution for importers, exporters, producers and processors may not always be traditional bank finance. The provision of competitive working capital support and structured finance solutions to our counterparties enables OQ Trading to serve those trading partners across a range of dimensions, maintaining long-lasting relationships that are built on trust and performance. We can utilise diversified funding sources combined with our deep expertise in supply & trading to provide innovative offerings centred on the delivery and/or offtake of energy commodities.

A strong standalone balance sheet and government shareholding structure provides an efficient base for financing ever expanding trading activities, increasing volumes and expanding to new regions. Collateralised and self-liquidating short-term loans are predominantly utilised, secured by the underlying physical commodity to create low risk structures and consequently competitively priced funding. OQ Trading’s principal funding source is a multi-region syndicated Borrowing Base credit facility, successfully refinanced in June 2020.

Trakk

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