Mercuria, a commodities trader, forms joint venture with Eni, an Italian major

The companies announced on Wednesday that they had agreed to form a joint-venture between Swiss commodities trading house Mercuria, and the Italian oil and gas giant Eni. This is part of a growing trend in which trading partnerships are formed to take advantage of volatile markets.

Mercuria announced that the 50:50 joint-venture will be run from its headquarters in Geneva. It will trade crude oil and refined fuels as well as biofuels and gas.

Mercuria announced that it will begin operations in 2027 pending regulatory approvals.

Mercuria's strategy to seek partnerships that increase market access and deepen integration with physical markets led it to link the?venture up with Eni.

In a statement, Mercuria Chief Executive Officer Marco Dunand said that the integration of physical energy flow, logistics and risk management capabilities would allow 'the venture to maximize value across the entire supply chain. Mercuria signed its second joint venture deal this year when it inked a contract with Indian trading group Tata International to launch a trading division. Due to the increased volatility on international energy markets due to Russia's invasion in Ukraine in 2022, and this year's Iran War, oil companies are now more focused on trading energy than producing it.

Eni has already acquired a 20% stake, along with co-owners OMV and?ADNOC in ADNOC Global Trading. This year, French oil major TotalEnergies agreed to a deal with Bahrain's BAPCO in order to form a Middle East Trading Venture. Mercuria's Chief Financial Officer Guillaume Vermersch said that the company made a net profit of $1.43billion in 2025. This is up from $1.52billion in 2024, and a record $3billion in 2022. (Reporting and editing by Barbara Lewis, Giulia Segriti, Robert Harvey)

(source: Reuters)