Trafigura

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Founded in 1993, Trafigura is a company that specialises in trading base metals as well as energy (including oil). Since it was founded Trafigura has now grown into a company with equity in excess of US$1bn with a turnover last year of US$57bn. It operates out of over 55 offices in 36 countries in Europe and North, Central, and South America, as well as in the Middle and Far East.

Trafigura was set up by Claude Dauphin and Eric de Turkheim who had worked as oil traders at Glencore, a company based in Zug, Switzerland.[1]

Contents

[edit] Oil-for-Food Scandal

The company was named in the Oil-for-Food Scandal [2], for example, in connection with the Essex, a Liberian registered "turbine-tanker" that had UN approval to load Iraqi crude at Iraq’s main export terminal at Mina al-Bakr. The tanker was chartered by Trafigura Beheer BV and according to its captain, Theofanis Chiladakis, the Essex was at least twice 'topped off' with an extra 272,000 barrels of crude after UN monitors had signed off the cargo. This was on May 13 and August 27, 2001, however, Elf-Aquitaine employees first talked about this scheme in February 1998.

A Trafigura subsidiary called Roundhead, Inc. had bought the oil from a subsidiary of the French oil trader, Ibex Energy and claimed it paid Ibex a "premium" of 40 cents per barrel over the official United Nations selling price. In early October 2001, U.S. warships intercepted the Essex off the coast of Curacao before it could offload its illegal cargo. This resulted in more than US$5 million in additional shipping costs for Trafigura, and led them to sue Ibex in a London court for having misled them. But Ibex managing director Jean-Paul Cayre claimed in an affadavit that Trafigura had cooked up the scheme to "make up for an earlier loss on an Iraqi oil deal that fell through in 1999."[3]

[edit] Waste dumping in Côte d'Ivoire

Further information: 2006 Ivory Coast toxic waste spill

On July 2, 2006, the Probo Koala, a ship leased by the company, entered a port in Amsterdam to unload a few hundred tons of waste, or "slops".[4] Amsterdam Port Services BV, the company that had been contracted to take the waste, raised their price to process the waste 20-fold soon after delivery, after determining the waste was more toxic than previously understood. In response, Trafigura decided to have the ship take back the waste and have it processed en route to a different processing site in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, one of Africa's largest seaports. In Abidjan, the waste was handed over to a local licensed processing company, Compagnie Tommy. However the processing company illegally dumped the waste instead of processing it. Many people there became sick due to exposure to the waste, and investigations were begun to determine whether it was intentionally dumped by Trafigura. Trafigura have stated in a press statement that their tests show the waste not to be as toxic as has been claimed, and they are unsure why so many people have become ill from exposure to it.[5]

The New York Times reported on October 3, 2006 that the dumping of the contents of the ship, which was carried out by Compagnie Tommy, was indeed illegal.

On February 13, 2007, in response to the deaths of 10 people (the number of which has subsequently increased), and the various illnesses of over 100,000 people attributed to the waste, Trafigura paid 152 million Euros to Côte d'Ivoire in compensation. The payment also exonerated Trafigura from further legal proceedings in Côte d'Ivoire.

On February 19, 2007, Côte d'Ivoire attributed the deaths of 5 more people to the waste dump, raising the total to 15.[6]

On May 18, 2007, the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reported that the press officer of Trafigura (operating under the username Press Office T NL) attempted to alter the Dutch Wikipedia article nl:Probo Koala on three separate occasions, with intent to clear their name. The page is now locked and is not accessible for modifications. [7]

[edit] Structure

Some of Trafigura's major international units include:

  • Trafigura Beheer BV, based in the Netherlands
  • Trafigura AG, is the main office, based in Lucerne, Switzerland, also deals with business in the United States.
  • Trafigura Pte Ltd runs the Group’s petroleum trading in the Far East.
  • Puma Group of Companies which operate the Group’s world-wide oil storage and distribution assets and investments.
  • Galena Asset Management, based in London and FSA registered, is the subsidiary through which Trafigura has established and manages a fund management business.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Timmerman, Kenneth (2004-03-16). The French Betrayal of America (html), Crown Forum (New York). Retrieved on 2007-05-18. 
  2. ^ Hoyos, Carola. "Big oil groups implicated in oil-for-food scandal" (html), Financial Times, 2005-10-28. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. 
  3. ^ Timmerman, Kenneth (2004-03-16). The French Betrayal of America (html), Crown Forum (New York). Retrieved on 2007-05-18. 
  4. ^ Polgreen, Lydia; Marlise Simons. "Global Sludge Ends in Tragedy for Ivory Coast" (html), New York Times, 2006-10-01. Retrieved on 2006-03-06. 
  5. ^ Trafigura Tests Contradict Media Speculation (html). Trafigura (2006-09-24). Retrieved on 2007-03-06.
  6. ^ "Death toll from ICoast pollution rises to 15" (html), Reuters, 2007-02-19. Retrieved on 2007-03-06. 
  7. ^ "Tot drie keer toe is het lemma over het gifschip Probo Koala veranderd. Tevergeefs." (html), ANP, 2007-05-18. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. 

[edit] External links

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