Big russian oil round

The departure of Mikhail Khodorkovsky has brought an end to the idyllic times of supplies of Russian oil to the MOL-Slovnaft group. The group used to purchase oil directly from Yukos. But now brokers have again entered the Central European oil business. And their aim is to take control over all of the oil business. The Russians demonstrated the changed situation to Slovakia last autumn: you will either accept the new model, or there will be problems with oil deliveries. Consumers got the message. The main brokers of Russian oil in Central Europe are the Swiss companies Glencore and Fisotra. Little information is available regarding these commodity brokers. But the information available is sufficient to indicate that these are not small companies. Glencore undertakes 3% of all international oil trades. With an annual turnover of 72 billions USD, it was the biggest Swiss company by turnover in 2004. Fisotra also has an extensive product portfolio. It offers financial and commercial services and does not hide its good relations with Russian oil companies. Between 1994 and 1998, it managed their financial operations with major western companies such as BP, Cargill, Elf, Exxon, Shell, Total, and Mutsubishi and also with Glencore. Fisotra states that some of its clients achieved an annual turnover of 1.5 billions USD. At present, the Swiss brokers receive a fee of 1 to 1.5 USD per barrel. The Russian political elite must be aware of these brokerage services as the oil transport through the transit system is closely monitored by the state owned company Transneft. (authors)