How One of the Tiniest Oil Markets Cost Trafigura Over $1 Billion
A small but profitable fuel-supply business concealed a ballooning web of credit exposures.
Buildings in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Trafigura Group is a giant of commodity trading. On any given day, it handles enough oil to supply the entire needs of France three times over. Its global reach stretches from US crude oil export infrastructure to fuel stations in more than 20 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Yet in a distant corner of its empire, far from the attention of top executives in Geneva and Singapore, a crisis has been brewing for some time.