Evolution of Oil Trading

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The presentation will discuss the parallel developments in the commercial oil industry and related chartering models. It begins with the colonization of producer nations (mainly by the British and Dutch) to Independence movements in the Middle East, Africa, and South America. It then follows the corresponding change in oil trading from a strictly term-driven process to a spot market emerging in the early 1970’s to the commoditization of oil in the following decade and beyond. The shipping industry has evolved from a pure supply chain function with major oil company owned tonnage to a primarily time-charter market (thanks to the emergence of Greek and Norwegian independent owners after World War II). It then continued to a spot-driven market and is now back to a contract driven market (thanks to indices such as the FFA market and The Baltic Exchange).

Paul Mazzarulli

The Baltic Exchange

Paul Mazzarulli is 50 years old and is proud to be celebrating his 48th year in the oil and tanker industries. His father, Pat Mazzarulli, founded one of the world’s first independent, integrated energy brokerage firms and Paul has had a front row seat to the evolution and development of the spot market, cargo trading, and the launch of energy futures. His formal career began in the early 1990s as a spot tanker broker, and since then, Paul has been at the forefront of developments across the commodity sector, including deregulation of electricity markets, the emergence of freight derivatives trading, and biofuels and alternative energy. He is currently the manager of the U.S. and Americas regions for The Baltic Exchange.