Crude Oil and Refined Products
Belbridge Consulting offer a range of business consultancy services tailored to firms trading within the global crude oil and refined products markets.
The physical oil markets can be broken out into three segments;
Upstream – the exploration and production of crude oil.
Midstream – the transportation of crude through a network of pipelines or crude carriers for marine transportation.
Downstream – the retail of crude oil to refiners for the refining of crude into oil products (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil, fuel oil, etc.)
What’s more to know?
Of course, wholesale trading and risk management can take place across all of these streams, with prices being set and risks hedged throughout the value chain.
The oil markets are truly global, with a broad range of players from sovereign production nations, OPEC, commercial oil majors, marine shippers, pipeline owners, refiners, end users and hedge and proprietary traders.
The degree of flexibility and trading oil often proves difficult for traditional wholesale trading platforms to contend with, as in this example, the price and the ultimate delivery is unknown, making a fair P&L valuation quite subjective.
Unlike gas and power, crude oil and refined products aren’t always uniform. The physical properties of an oil blend or a refined product are a key component in its eventual selling price. The Sulphur content, viscosity, calorific value, etc. are all data items that need to be captured on inspection surveys during the trade lifecycle.
How can We help?
A solid understanding of how these commodity markets will truly affect the day to day trading and operational processes within your firm will ensure that your project team has the best possible information in order to deliver the right solutions and to allow your firm to extend its trading footprint without creating undue operational breaks and manual exception processing.
Whether it is helping to configure new markets into your existing CTRM/ETRM system, or whether it’s an initial assessment of the functionality required to commence trading in a new commodity or area, Belbridge Consulting can provide you with expert guidance gained from many years of hands-on experience in these complex markets.
By utilising our knowledge and expertise to supplement your internal project teams, you can be assured that your business and technology teams are able to both understand the needs and the pitfalls of these markets but also to translate the abstract terms into real meaningful requirements that are unique to your firm and its operational processes.
