Glencore Loses Another Head Oil Trader After Massive Payouts

Commodity trader Glencore PLC lost yet another member of its oil trading division, with Guy Freshwater, head of crude oil trading in the United States, taking his leave.

Freshwater stepped down from his position last week, according to anonymous sources who spoke to Bloomberg, which followed another resignation by Ricardo Gomez, who also left the oil desk.

These are just the latest in a string of summer departures for Glencore after making some of the largest bonus payments ever to employees in March after finishing out a banner year last year that left the commodity giant flush with cash.

2022 profits for Glencore’s trading division hit a record at $6.8 billion as oil price volatility created a golden opportunity due to the war in Ukraine.

Freshwater had 20 years on the job at Glencore.

Glencore is currently battling not only a wave of resignations as its traders were handed sizeable bonuses, but is also being sued by 197 claimants who allege that Glencore’s prospectuses when it listed on the LSE and when it merged contained “numerous untrue and misleading statements,” that arose from the company’s “failure to disclose that bribery, corruption, and fraud was prevalent in the business activities of key operating subsidiaries.”

The claimants argued that they suffered a loss as a result of those allegedly untrue statements.

Glencore’s shares are down 12.23% year to date.

Glencore also battled a sect of angry shareholders who voiced their displeasure at the company’s climate progress report that it unviled in May. The angry shareholders, who were not mollified with the $7 billion in dividends that were paid out largely due to its success with its thermal coal business, demanded additional information on how Glencore would reach its emission goals by backing a resolution that would require detailed information on Glencore’s progress with ditching its thermal coal business.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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