Oil Trading Giants Are Buying Big Oil’s Refineries

Having amassed huge profits over the past two years, oil trading giants are on a buying spree to acquire refineries that the biggest international oil and gas producers are divesting as part of strategic portfolio realignment. “The traders see an opportunity to end up with a plant that can run a slew of different crude oils,” Kurt Chapman, a board member of trader Levmet and former head of crude at Mercuria Energy Group, told Bloomberg. Commodity traders thus gain direct access to a refinery to which they can send part of the crude…