Glencore’s top oil and gas trader becomes latest senior exit
The head of Glencore Plc’s oil and gas trading team is planning to leave the company, becoming the latest high profile departure from one of the world’s biggest commodity traders.
Alex Sanna, who has been at the company for almost 20 years, will leave at the end of this year after deciding to step down, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. He will be replaced by Maxim Kolupaev, who currently leads LNG, gas and power trading.
Sanna’s departure comes just a few months after the company posted one of the worst performances from its energy- and coal-trading unit on record. Bloomberg reported the same week that coal-trading head Ruan van Schalkwyk was retiring, amid a wider shakeup of the trading unit leadership.
Sanna and van Schalkwyk’s departures are the latest in a series of senior exits from Glencore’s trading business. Jason Kluk, Glencore’s head of nickel and ferroalloy trading, left the company last November, while Sam Imfeld, a longstanding trader in Glencore’s aluminum and alumina team, left for rival Vitol Group earlier this year.
Sanna headed the oil and gas team for the past six years. During that period the company has pushed to expand its energy assets — it’s had much fewer operations compared with its metals and minerals business, where it both produces and trades large volumes.
Last year, the company bought Shell Plc’s refining and chemicals business in Singapore, and earlier this year a Glencore joint venture bought into Africa’s biggest oil storage site.
Reuters earlier reported Sanna’s departure.
Some of Glencore’s senior traders have also been targeted by energy trading rivals who are expanding into metals markets. Bloomberg previously reported that head of iron ore trading Peter Hill and Jyothish George, who was since promoted to head of metals, iron ore and coal trading, both had job offers from Vitol last year, before deciding to stay at Glencore.
(By Thomas Biesheuvel)
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