Spotlight on Trafigura in the United States

Trafigura is one of the largest and most active commodity traders in the US, present across oil, metals and bulk minerals, with a rapidly growing footprint in the US renewable energy space.

With more than a decade of investment in local infrastructure and logistics, Trafigura has developed a unique and leading market position in the export of US crude oil, natural gas liquids and natural gas.

Since the change of US crude oil export policy in late 2015, Trafigura has helped drive the country’s export growth, expanding domestic outlets for national crude production and partnering with local producers to find international markets for their output.

Key to the Group’s US oil operations is its substantial footprint in the south, where we gather over 350,000 barrels per day of crude oil from the Permian and Eagle Ford Basins and transport these volumes via rail, road and pipeline to our main export terminals in Corpus Christi, Houston and Beaumont in Texas and St James in Louisiana.

We have full commercial rights to four major facilities in Corpus Christi with over five million barrels of storage capacity, six deep-water berths and two condensate splitters that can process around 100,000 barrels of domestic US crude oil per day.

In addition to our commitment to domestic crude oil exports, we work closely with refiners across the US to bring their gasoline, diesel and other key refined products to international markets.

In liquefied natural gas, a series of strategic offtake deals, including a 15-year sale and purchase agreement with Cheniere Energy also make us one of the key exporters of this product from the US.

Assets and investments

Bluewater Texas Terminal

In 2020, Trafigura and Phillips 66 formed Bluewater Texas Terminal, a 50-50 joint venture to develop an offshore deep-water port project located close to the entrance of the Port of Corpus Christi. The project is aimed at delivering two single-point mooring buoys capable of fully loading Very Large Crude Carriers to export crude oil. Once operational this will provide US producers with the additional infrastructure required for increasing US crude oil supplies.

www.bwtxterminal.com

Sawtooth Caverns

In 2021, Trafigura and Haddington Ventures purchased Sawtooth Caverns located near Delta, Utah. Sawtooth Caverns is the largest natural gas liquids storage facility in western US, with storage capacity in its deep-well salt caverns of approximately seven million barrels of natural gas liquids and refined products. The facility is strategically located at an important transport crossroads that includes access to the Union Pacific rail system and interstate highways, giving it direct access to key markets in western US, Canada and Mexico.

www.sawtoothcaverns.com

Sawtooth Caverns in Delta, Utah, the largest natural gas liquids storage facility in the Western United States

In the US, Trafigura has a number of non-ferrous concentrates offtake agreements with US mines for copper, nickel, lead and zinc as well as supply agreements for these products with domestic and international smelters. We also supply a full spectrum of refined metals to industrial manufacturers and retailers.

Trafigura is also active in the US bulk minerals market trading coal and iron ore both domestically and internationally.

Assets and investments

Nyrstar mining and smelting operations, Tennessee

Through our majority investment in Nyrstar, we operate two major mining complexes and a smelter at three locations in Tennessee.

The East Tennessee complex near Knoxville consists of three underground zinc mines and a processing plant that produces over 110,000 metric tonnes of zinc concentrates annually.

The Middle Tennessee complex comprises two underground zinc mines and a processing plant that produces 50,000 metric tonnes of zinc concentrates, containing over 20 metric tonnes of germanium and 25 metric tonnes of gallium, annually.

The Clarksville zinc refinery has a 125,000 metric tonne refined zinc and a 480 metric tonne cadmium production capacity.

Burnside Terminal

Impala Terminals Burnside, Louisiana

Burnside terminal in Louisiana is one of the leading bulk exporting facilities in the US and has been managed by our subsidiary Impala Terminals since 2011. This status is thanks to our commitment to developing the site and investing in its improvement.

Located on the East Bank of the Mississippi River, the 1,100 acre state-of-the-art terminal provides an integrated and efficient supply chain route from the US to international markets through the Gulf of Mexico for our customers in the coal and pet coke producing heartland of the US. The facility includes a deep-water berth and ship loading and unloading equipment. It is capable of loading Capesize class bulk vessels with coal, bauxite and alumina.

Burnside is one of the only coal terminals on the Mississippi River with the capability to handle ocean vessels, barges and rail, allowing it to offer rail-to-vessel and barge-to-vessel capabilities.

Since 2020, Trafigura has been building its presence in the fast-evolving power and renewables sector through a series of strategic, targeted engagements.

We have established power trading teams in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific where we trade key power contracts, interconnector capacities as well as flexibility contracts, and environmental and carbon offset products. 

Through our renewable energy investment and development platform, Nala Renewables, we have  close to 1GW of US-based renewable projects in the development pipeline comprising solar, wind and battery energy storage systems.

The Group has also invested in a number of early-stage disruptive renewable technology businesses including North Carolina-based OneH2, which provides scalable hydrogen fuel production systems and delivers hydrogen fuel for use in transportation markets across a growing network in North America; and Houston-based geomechanical-pumped, long duration energy storage provider Quidnet.

Corey Prologo

Director of Oil Trading North America and Head of Houston Branch Office

Trafigura Trading LLC, Houston, Texas

Corey is the Director of North America for Trafigura, Head of Oil Trading and Head of the Houston branch office at Trafigura Trading LLC.

In this role, Corey leads the Group’s North American oil and petroleum products trading business, which involves managing overall unit performance and defining and executing the region’s trading strategy. He also manages the associated business functions within the Trafigura Houston office and the Group’s 240 US-based employees who handle transactions in markets around the world.

Under Corey’s leadership, Trafigura’s North American oil trading business has achieved significant growth, propelling the company to its current position as one of the largest oil exporters in the US. He has helped facilitate the growth of Corpus Christi as a hub for US energy exports, orchestrating a series of long-term investments, including USD1 billion on a marine export terminal and condensate splitter.

Corey joined Trafigura in 2011, serving as a trader and then as Head of Gasoline Trading in the Geneva office. Prior to joining Trafigura, Corey worked at BP for nearly a decade in its gasoline team, where he held regional leadership roles in offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, London and Singapore.

TJ Tedla

Chief Financial Officer, North America

Trafigura Trading LLC, Houston, Texas

TJ is Chief Financial Officer for North America, having joined Trafigura Trading LLC in April 2021.

Based in Houston, he has over 20 years’ experience in investment banking, with significant expertise in commodity-linked financing and risk management products, corporate and project finance, and mergers and acquisitions.

TJ was previously a managing director in the Commodities and Financial Markets Division at Macquarie Bank. Before this, he was at Barclays Capital where he held several leadership roles, accessing US capital markets for term loans, high-yield bonds and commodity-linked structured finance solutions for clients in the upstream, midstream and power space.