Glencore has taken out a big bet on North Sea oil
Embattled miner and trader Glencore has taken out a big bet on the equally troubled North Sea oil and gas industry.
Both have been hit by the commodity price rout, in which oil prices tumbled from over $110 per barrel to below $30 earlier this year.
The Swiss firm built up one of the largest positions in part of the oil market which acts as a benchmark for global oil prices since the start of the year, Oil major Shell deployed a similar strategy.
The Brent market is based on four North Sea crude oils — Brent, Forties, Oseberg and Ekofisk. Glencore holds more than a third 37 of these cargoes loading in June, and is expected to acquired more, Reuters reported.
"It's definitely a bold statement of market view by Glencore," a source told Reuters. "You'd have to be in their heads and in their books to know exactly what's going on".
A spokesman for Glencore declined to comment on the company's trading strategy.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, was last down 0.9 per cent to $47.6 this morning. West Texas Intermediate crude, the US benchmark, slumped 1.2 per cent to $46.1.