KUALA LUMPUR, June 27 — Refineries and traders have positioned themselves to take advantage of the volatility in the oil and gas market (O&G), especially in the last three years.

Vitol global head of research Giovanni Serio said it was difficult to predict where and when the volatility was going to hit the market during the past three years.

"Therefore, what traders have always done is try to position themselves to take advantage of the volatility and to meet the challenges wherever and whenever it comes,” he said during a panel discussion session on "Refining and Trading: Riding the Market Dynamics to Stay Ahead” at Energy Asia 2023 here today.

Serio said this in response to a question on how refiners and traders are positioning themselves with volatility in the market.

He said that after the Covid-19 pandemic, refineries saw an accumulated refining capacity of 3.0 billion barrels of oil per day.

"The impression was that demand was not going to need refining expansions, consequently in 2022, we found ourselves short in terms of capacity with extraordinary refining margins.

"The name of the game here is to be nimble and flexible to diversify because you do not know where the imbalance is going to come from,” said Serio.

On another note, Petco Trading Labuan Company Ltd chief executive officer Shamsul Bahari Salleh said one of the O&G industry’s efforts to decarbonise within the energy transition sphere was by weighing in biofuels.

"A key indicator that this business is gaining traction is when we started seeing airlines using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

"We have tested that with Malaysia Airlines together with Petronas Dagangan. I think the rest of the world is also picking up SAF and that is a good indicator for us to move into the next phase of the biofuels business,” he added. — Bernama