Emirates National Oil Co (ENOC) has hired a former BP trader to cover crude in Singapore, industry sources said on Monday, as the state firm joins others in expanding in a sector that is emerging from the downturn. Adrian Querzoli, who is from Adelaide, Australia, is covering both Middle East and Asia-Pacific crude grades for ENOC. Trained as a chemical engineer, Querzoli had worked for oil major BP for nearly 12 years, spanning Australia, UK and Singapore.
The trading firm is already an established player in oil products trading including naphtha, distillates and fuel oil. ENOC would complete upgrading its 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) Jebel Ali, Dubai refinery this year. With a global storage capacity of 4 million cubic metres, ENOC planned to expand its Fujairah storage terminal by 500,000 cubic metres by the end of 2011.
The oil industry is hiring again amid the economic recovery, with at least 10 top traders changing jobs and some companies looking to hire in the last quarter. The development in Asia reflected that in the United States, where the best traders are being wooed again by banks and hedge funds, after hundreds of commodity traders lost their jobs last year due to the recession.