Mercuria and Eni form global energy trading venture
The Italian major and the Swiss trader set up a 50:50 venture spanning oil, biofuels, gas and LNG, marking Eni's return to trading.
Italian energy major Eni and Swiss commodities trader Mercuria have agreed to set up a joint venture for global energy trading.
The 50:50 venture will operate independently and cover oil, biofuels, gas, LNG and related logistics and infrastructure rights. The companies said the business will be structured through a holding company with international trading hubs. No financial details were disclosed.
The deal marks Eni's return to a market it stepped back from in 2019, as European rivals built large trading businesses that have benefited from recent energy price swings. It follows market rumours earlier this year that Eni had been in talks with Mercuria over a potential partnership. Chief executive Claudio Descalzi also told the Financial Times in February that Eni was looking at trading again after seeing BP, Shell and TotalEnergies make large profits from the activity.
Mercuria, founded in Geneva in 2004 by Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi, is one of the world's largest independent energy and commodities groups, with operations across crude oil, refined products, natural gas, LNG, power, renewables, metals and carbon markets.
Stefano Pujatti, director of global trading at Eni, said the venture would expand the company's trading footprint and improve profitability through stronger risk management and operating efficiency. Marco Dunand, chief executive of Mercuria, said the partnership would combine physical energy flows with trading, logistics and risk management capabilities.
The deal follows a wider trend of producers and trading houses combining physical supply with commercial and risk management expertise. Similar models include ADNOC Global Trading, the Abu Dhabi venture between ADNOC, OMV and Mercuria, and BxT Trading, the refined products venture between TotalEnergies and Bahrain's Bapco Energies.
Mercuria has been building out its tanker exposure after years of operating with limited direct ownership, instead securing freight through long-term charters. The group controls around 40 vessels, but recent activity shows a push to lock in capacity through owned ships, and it has been linked in recent months to a string of newbuilding deals in China across the aframax/LR2, suezmax and VLCC tanker segments.
The Eni and Mercuria venture remains subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.
Photo: Gordon Leggett / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
