Tucked away in a modest office block between Buckingham Palace and London’s Victoria coach station operates one of the world’s most profitable yet least visible companies, Vitol. The privately held energy trader has averaged more than USD 12 billion in net profit annually over the past three years, equivalent to roughly USD 6 million per employee, and has returned close to USD 20 billion to its 600 senior partners through its share scheme.
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These record-breaking payouts followed an extraordinary run, as Vitol outperformed rivals by seizing on market upheavals sparked first by the Covid pandemic in 2020 and then by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. While the group does not publicly disclose its results, filings in Luxembourg show profits jumping from USD 2.3 billion in 2019 to a record USD 15.1 billion in 2022, followed by USD 13.2 billion in 2023 and USD 8.7 billion in 2024.
Founded in 1966 in Rotterdam by Henk Viëtor and Jacques Detiger, Vitol has grown into a global powerhouse, trading more oil daily last year than the combined consumption of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK. Yet outside the sector, it remains little known.
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Recent aluminium bets on LME
Vitol, long known as the world’s most profitable yet least visible oil trader, is now reshaping its playbook. Flush with billions in profits from the energy crisis, the Rotterdam-founded giant has begun extending its reach into global metals markets. Recent aluminium bets on the London Metal Exchange (LME), large enough to outstrip available warehouse stocks signal that Vitol, alongside fellow energy trader Gunvor, is ready to challenge Glencore and Trafigura’s dominance in metals.
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This shift reflects a broader pivot - energy traders, once focused almost exclusively on oil and gas, are now chasing opportunities in commodities critical to the energy transition, from aluminium for power grids and EVs to copper for electrification. In doing so, Vitol is transforming from a discreet oil powerhouse into a more diversified force in global commodities.
“Vitol is different from the other trading houses,” said former commodities banker Jean-François Lambert. “It is older, much stronger financially, but so discreet that few people know about them.” Industry peers regard it either as the gold standard of commodity trading or as a ruthlessly competitive operator.
Despite its huge profits, employees describe a collegiate, understated culture, with little display of wealth and rare clashes between traders. This is underpinned by its partnership structure, where no individual owns more than 5 per cent. Over time, the partnership has expanded from just two founders to nearly 600 today, chief executive Russell Hardy explained. By contrast, younger rivals like Mercuria and Gunvor remain tightly controlled by their founders.
Hardy, who joined from BP in 1993 and became CEO in 2017, presents himself as analytical and detail-focused, in contrast to his predecessor Ian Taylor, the charismatic dealmaker who died in 2020. Hardy now leads Vitol with an eight-member executive board and a wider network of 50–70 desk and division heads, each granted significant autonomy.
Vitol’s lean structure is striking compared with oil majors like Shell. Its main trading business employs around 1,800 staff, though its wider group, including subsidiaries and joint ventures, may employ up to 20,000. This efficiency has translated into enormous personal wealth - in 2023 alone, USD 10.6 billion was distributed to partners, an average of USD 17.5 million each, far eclipsing Trafigura’s payouts to its much larger base of shareholders.
Vitol’s business spans oil, gas and power
Vitol’s business spans oil, gas, and power, with USD 228 billion of oil traded in 2023, alongside USD 69 billion of gas and USD 22 billion of power. Its revenues reached almost USD 500 billion in 2022, second only to Walmart worldwide.
A hallmark of Vitol’s model is its centralised financing. Instead of arranging trade-specific loans, it raises debt centrally and uses a pooled liquidity structure, reducing reliance on banks. Its balance sheet shows equity of USD 30.7 billion and debt of just $3.6bn, a stark contrast to Trafigura’s USD 16.3 billion equity but USD 31 billion debt burden.
This financial strength proved decisive during the 2022 energy crisis, when cash-rich Vitol could absorb margin calls and exploit market dislocations. “The secret sauce in trading is your pool of cash,” Lambert noted.
Vitol’s challenging journey so far
Vitol has reinvested some of its windfall into assets, acquiring the largest refinery in the Mediterranean, BP’s Turkish fuel network, South Africa’s Engen, and stakes in oil and LNG projects in West and Central Africa. Still, Hardy insists that 70–80 per cent of capital will remain focused on trading, keeping Vitol agile. Its subsidiaries, such as Vivo Energy, are run as largely independent businesses with their own CEOs and brands.
The company has not escaped controversy. In 2023, former trader Javier Aguilar was convicted in the US for bribery in Ecuador and Mexico, prompting Vitol to tighten compliance systems. Meanwhile, a generational shift is under way at the top, with long-standing figures like Chris Bake and Gérard Delsad retiring.
Looking ahead, Vitol faces the challenge of adjusting to slower but still enormous profits. Hardy expects earnings to normalise between USD 2 billion and USD 9 billion annually, compared with the USD 12 billion average of recent years. “People are just adjusting to the fact that we’re flying a bit slower than we used to,” he said. “You’ve got to work a bit harder for the opportunities.”
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