Hadi Hallouche, a longtime rising figure at Trafigura who was once seen as a potential CEO, has created a new trading shop called Oxitera SA. He previously co-led Trafigura's oil division, oversaw its fuel distribution arm Puma Energy, and was one of the key people who made the company a significant force in liquefied natural gas trading. He departed Trafigura in the middle of last year.
Oxitera will run out of Geneva and Houston and intends to trade across oil, liquefied natural gas, and power. Hallouche is joined by a cohort of past Trafigura leaders: Nicolas Marsac, previously in charge of structured finance at Trafigura, will serve as chief financial officer; Margaux Moore will take the chief of staff role; Conor McFadden, a veteran oil trader, will lead North America; and Laura Tolub will oversee European gas and power.
Energy trading houses are again racking up hefty earnings, with supply routes upended by the Middle East war, and profits lingering close to the peaks reached after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Mercuria Energy Group and Gunvor Group have both seen profits more than double, and Trafigura's first-half result jumped 173%. Against that backdrop, Hallouche said, "The commodities landscape is undergoing a tectonic shift. The strategic nature of commodities has never been clearer; and technology has never been more transformational." But expectations that he would become Trafigura's third-ever CEO faded after he was removed when Trafigura reconstituted its executive committee in 2023.
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Fresh entrants with seasoned teams can shift where energy trading flows and risk-taking concentrate. If you watch exposure to oil, LNG, or power, note how new desks like Oxitera position themselves at a time when volatility is minting outsized profits and technology is changing how trades get done.
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