Trafigura Group, a privately owned commodity trading company headquartered in Lucerne, Switzerland is beefing up its energy derivatives trading desk and has hired Chris Jamieson, head of oil trading at EDF Trading, to lead the effort. Jamieson declined to comment.
The firm already executes some derivatives trades on the back of its physical oil and gas trading effort but wishes to expand the business, according to officials.
Jamieson reports to David Mooney, director-power and natural gas, who was on vacation and could not be reached.
Trafigura is not rated by the three major credit rating agencies and this could put it at a disadvantage in trading long-dated derivatives but is not a deal breaker, according to potential counterparties. Trading partners would likely review Trafigura's accounts and set up margin agreements and threshold limits, explained one commodities derivatives professional.
In addition, Trafigura could also avoid the counterparty credit risk issue by trading listed derivatives on the New York Mercantile Exchange and the IntercontinentalExchange .
At EDF Trading, Jamieson reported to Steve Lewis, head of trading. Lewis was out of the office and could not be reached. Christophe Arnoult, chief administrative officer, declined comment.
