Quick overview

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Vitol Group has informed banks that it made a first-quarter profit of about $2 billion to reassure lenders about losses in certain areas of its business because of the Iran war.

The profit figure discussed informally during conversations over the past week was described as indicative.

Early in March, the Middle East conflict rocked the world’s energy markets, driving up the price of gas and oil and interfering with the flow of cargo, including some that Vitol itself owned and became stuck in the Persian Gulf.

The company has been briefing banks following Bloomberg’s April 11 report that Vitol was reorganizing its derivatives team, which had suffered large losses after being caught on the wrong side of price movements in the early days of the war.

For traders like Vitol, which made $37 billion in three years during 2022–2024 when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine sparked an energy crisis, significant disruptions in commodity markets are typically beneficial.

The company—owned by roughly 600 of its top employees—became the world’s most profitable trading house. It is a massive player in the energy markets, handling enough oil every day to supply Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and the UK combined, but it is little known outside of the commodities sector.

Vitol communicates about its performance to its banks rather than formally announcing its results to the public in an industry that depends on large credit lines to finance the cargo being shipped around the world. The company’s full-year profits fell from $8.7 billion in 2024 to roughly 30% to 50% last year. Even though that suggests the worst outcome since before 2022.