 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Commodity |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Founders | Gennady Timchenko Torbjörn Törnqvist |
| Headquarters | |
Area served | Global |
Key people | Torbjörn Törnqvist |
| Services | Energy trading,raw materials |
| Revenue | US$150 billion (2022)[1] |
| Owner | Torbjörn Törnqvist (87%) Employees (13%)[2] |
Number of employees | 1,700 (2022)[1] |
| Website | gunvorgroup |
Gunvor Group Ltd is amultinational energycommodities trading company registered inCyprus,[3] with its main trading office inGeneva, Switzerland.[1] Gunvor also has trading offices inSingapore,Houston,Stamford,London,Calgary, andDubai, with a network of representative offices around the globe. The company operates in the trade, transport, storage and optimization ofpetroleum and other energy products, as well as having investments inoil terminal and port facilities. Its operations consist of securing crude oil and petroleum products upstream and delivering it to market via pipelines and tankers. Gunvor has a separate company, Nyera, set up in 2021 to invest in renewable energy sources. It is run by energy transition director Fredrik Tornqvist.
The company, which was founded in 2000, is the fourth largestcrude oil trader in the world afterGlencore,Vitol andTrafigura.[4]
Today, Gunvor originates most of its crude oil from the Americas.[5] It also trades African, Asian, and South-American oil products and is active on all continents.[6] The company has stopped trading Russian crude oil, and only transacts "very small volumes of Russian oil products, a few tens of thousands of tonnes" that are compliant with international economic sanctions.[7] Natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) accounted for 44% of the firm's traded volumes in 2021.[8]
Gennady Timchenko andTorbjörn Törnqvist, two oil traders, began working together in 1997, and in 2000 formalized Gunvor,[9] which is named after Törnqvist's mother.[10] In 2003, the company started operations in Geneva.[11]
According to theFinancial Times, until 2007 the company was a "niche player"[12] focused on exporting Russian oil throughEstonia, relying on the expertise of its two founders in the oil business, Russian market and transit logistics. Torbjörn Törnqvist is a Swedish citizen born in 1953. He has traded oil across the world for over twenty years, beginning his career atBP. Gennady Timchenko is a Finnish citizen born in theSoviet Union in 1952. He has more than 20 years experience in the oil industry, beginning with theKirishi refinery duringperestroika, and was one of the first Russians to export oil to Europe after theSoviet Union collapsed.
In 2007, Gunvor's turnover was US$43 billion, with exports of 83 million tons of oil and petroleum products (up from 60 million tons in 2006). In 2010, the company's turnover grew to US$65 billion, up from US$53 billion in 2009, with volumes increasing to 104 million tons.[13]
Gunvor has invested in oil storages facilities, refineries, port facilities and terminals, therefore ensuring a "comparative advantage over their competitors", according to Törnqvist interviewed by theFinancial Times.[12] According to the company website, Gunvor owns its own shipping company, Clearlake Shipping Ltd, which shipped 30% of theBaltic crude oil (20.5 million tonnes) in 2006.[14]
According to Nefte Compass, from February 2002 to February 2008, Russian oil exports through Gunvor increased sixteen times. The company controls 60% of the volume transiting through Estonia, and 41% of that transit via the port ofPrimorsk, Leningrad Oblast.
In 2009, Gunvor made major investments into physical assets such as oil terminals and facilities, the largest being into its oil export terminal in the port ofUst-Luga on theBaltic Sea, outside ofSt-Petersburg. In September 2009, the terminal was sold toTransneft.[15]
In September 2009, Gunvor made its first direct investment inoil exploration when it purchased a 30% interest in Lagansky block in theCaspian Sea fromLundin Petroleum. The field has proven reserves of over 230 million barrels of oil.[16]
Gunvor also owns three major European refineries which are based in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The Gunvor PetroleumRotterdam refinery can process 88,000 barrels per day, while theIngolstadt refinery located inBavaria can handle 110,000 barrels per day and is supplied by theTransalpine Pipeline from the marine shipping terminal inTrieste, Italy. Gunvor also owns a large refinery with a capacity in excess of 100,000 barrels per day located in the north of the Port ofAntwerp.[17]
In 2021, the American chemical company Dow announced a plastics recycling program in partnership with Gunvor's Rotterdam refining operation.[18]
Gunvor has expanded beyond its Russian roots, and trades globally, including in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas with its main trading hubs located in Geneva, Singapore, Nassau and Dubai.[19] The group has also opened offices inAmsterdam,Moscow,Beijing andNigeria.[citation needed] Gunvor has stated that it intends to develop its new energy trading division so that it will become a more significant part of a more diversified business.
In 2009, Gunvor established its Global Energy division,[20] focused on trading a broad range of energy commodities including Global Coal and Freight, Emissions and Renewables, Natural Gas and LNG and Power.
The company intends to continue to expand and diversify in 2010, both geographically and across the energy value chain. Marking a new phase in its expansion into the European energy markets, Gunvor entered its first trades in thenatural gas, power and carbon markets in January 2010, and extending its trading capability across North West and Central Europe for physical natural gas and coal across the globe.[21]
In April 2010, the company hired traders who take responsibility for Gunvor's physical-gas positions across continental Europe, D. Smith for as a coal trader in 2010, and Fredrik Bodecke who will be responsible for the Nordic and Balticelectricity markets.[22]
In September 2023, it was announced that Gunvor would enter the metals trade again with the hiring of a veteran trader.[23] In December 2023, Gunvor acquired a 75% stake in a 785 megawatt power plant in Bilbao, Spain, from BP Gas Marketing Limited.[24] In August 2024, it was announced that TotalEnergies had sold a 50% stake in Total PARCO Pakistan Limited, an oil marketing firm, to Gunvor Group. It was a joint venture between Total Energies and Pak-Arab Refinery Limited in Pakistan, with a retail network of more than 800 service stations.[25]
Torbjörn Törnqvist holds nearly 88% of Gunvor, and the remainder is held by employees.[26] Prior to 2014, it was said that its two co-founders held an equal number of shares, with the balance being held in anemployee benefit trust for senior management.[27][28][29][30][31][32] On 20 March 2014 Timchenko was included on the United States'Sanctions list in the wake of theannexation of Crimea by Russia, due to his close ties with Russian PresidentVladimir Putin.[33] The US Treasury alleged that via Timchenko "Putin has investments in Gunvor and may have access to Gunvor funds,"[34] without providing any evidence.[35] Törnqvist bought out Timchenko's 43.5% stake and became the nominal owner of an 87% stake in the company on 19 March 2014.[36] Timchenko explained the sale by "anticipating potential economic sanctions" and to "ensure with certainty the continued and uninterrupted operations of Gunvor Group".[33] The value of the transaction was not disclosed.[36]
In 2008,The Economist mentioned Timchenko in an article that repeated previously published statements about Timchenko and Gunvor. Both of these parties sued for libel.[37]The Economist withdrew the contested material from its website. The lawsuit was settled in July 2009.[38]The Economist published a correcting statement.[39]
Following the majorWikiLeaks release of USState Department cables in November 2010, it was reported by the LondonDaily Telegraph[40] that the wealth of the then Russian Prime MinisterVladimir Putin was linked to a "secretive Swiss-based oil trading firm" called Gunvor. It said thatJohn Beyrle, the United Statesambassador to theRussian Federation stated that close connections existed between Gunvor and the Russian Government. Gunvor stated in response to the WikiLeaks disclosure that Timchenko and Törnqvist owned "a large majority of Gunvor" and that a "minority stake is owned by an employee benefit trust". It went on to say that "the company had taken out credit facilities which require full disclosure of company ownership".[41]
In 2017, aSwedish Radio documentary presented evidence that Gunvor had been involved in a Belarusian oil smuggling scheme featuring corruption at the highest levels in the Belarus government.[42]This documentary won the 2017 Prix Europa award in the "Radio Current Affairs" category.[43]Gunvor denied any wrongdoing.[citation needed]
In March 2020,The Sunday Times published an article based on a 2015 interview withSergei Pugachev, once known as Kremlin's banker, linking Gunvor to Russian PresidentVladimir Putin.[44]
In 2019, Gunvor "was condemned by Swiss authorities to pay approximately US$96.7 million[45] for failing to put adequate measures in place to prevent the bribery of foreign government officials[46] inCote d’Ivoire and theRepublic of Congo in exchange for lucrative oil deals."[47] In 2021Transparency International included this as one of five examples of foreign bribery in "clean" countries in theCorruption Perception Index.[47]
In March 2024, Gunvor resolved investigations by authorities in the U.S. and Switzerland into past activities in Ecuador.[48] Gunvor accepted responsibility for the actions of certain of its former agents and employees, all of whom Gunvor stopped working with years ago and before it learned of the U.S. investigation. Gunvor agreed to pay approximately $374 million in fines and $287 million in forfeiture. The judge in the case said he was “happy to see this chapter has ended” and that he looked “forward to Gunvor’s continued participation in the market.”[49]
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Media related toGunvor (multinational) at Wikimedia Commons