A millionaire oil trader at Geneva-based Trafigura-the world's third-largest private oil and metals trader-is jumping for a medal in the Rio Olympics, competing for Argentina in an equestrian event, Swiss financial news website finews.ch reports.
Forty-seven-year-old Jose Larocca is board member and head of oil trading at Trafigura, but his ambitions lie beyond oil, gas and gasoline: he vies for a medal at the ongoing Olympics.
Switzerland-born trader Larocca is part of the younger generation of traders who received Trafigura shares in an ownership reshuffle two years ago.
Speaking to finews.ch about the Olympic ambitions of its head of oil trader, Trafigura just said that "he keeps that part of his life separate from his working life".
In June, Trafigura reported its first-half figures for the period ended March 31, 2016, saying that trading was especially strong in its oil and petroleum products division, with volume traded daily topping 4 million barrels for the first time on record.
Clearly Trafigura has an overachiever on their hands, on multiple fronts.
And in July, Trafigura hit the headlines by taking part in the shipment of Iran's first oil to China's small independent refineries, the teapots. Iran's National Oil Company (NIOC) had sold some 2 million barrels to Trafigura in June, making Trafigura the first among its peers to start selling crude to Chinese teapots.
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Last week, Bloomberg reported that the NIOC was in talks to sell more crude to Trafigura bound for the Chinese teapots, including under a possible long-term agreement. Talks are ongoing, and no deal has been finalized, Bloomberg quoted its sources as saying.
In addition, Trafigura is competing to grab a larger chunk of the global bitumen market, which is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of four percent until 2020.
Now, Trafigura's head of oil trading Larocca may miss a couple of multi-million deals these days, but he will certainly have more accomplishments under his belt than the average trader; he will have competed in the Olympics.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More