Vitol eyeing metals market as oil demand to peak in 10 years, CEO signals [Video]

SINGAPORE — Vitol is eyeing the metals market with global petroleum demand expected to peak in a decade, signaled Russell Hardy, CEO of Vitol, the world’s largest independent energy trader.

“The petroleum, the oil business, we still think it will reach a peak at some point, about 10 years ahead from where we are today,” Hardy said on Thursday at the Financial Times Commodities Summit in Singapore. 

In contrast to the eventual decline of the crude industry, metals business is going to witness a “great deal of growth through the electrification phase,” he added.

“So we quite like the idea of being involved in the bigger metal markets. And the three bigger metal markets are steel and iron ore, copper and aluminum,” he said.

In August, Vitol announced its acquisition of Noble Resources, a Hong Kong-based trader specializing in oil, coal and metallurgical coke, which is used to make iron. Vitol in April poached two metal traders from Mercuria, Reuters reported. 

Energy trading giants, such …