FLASH
Shkruar nga Alessandro Lubello
The war in Iran has shaken energy markets, creating record profits for global brokers, while high prices and shortages are weighing on economies and consumers around the world...
The world's major crude oil trading groups are reaping huge profits thanks to the chaos caused in energy markets by the war in Iran. "It is still too early to say whether 2026 will bring the sector more money than what was earned between 2022 and 2023," after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but some operators are recording the highest profits in the last four years, writes Bloomberg. And the situation is not expected to improve in the short term: in an interview with the French daily "Le Figaro", Faith Birol, director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), declared that the current crisis is "more severe than those of 1973, 1979 and 2022".
The profits are concentrated mainly in Switzerland, where the most important brokers in the trade of oil and other raw materials are headquartered. Vitol, the market leader, has stated that according to a preliminary estimate, in the first quarter of 2026 it is expected to record profits of two billion dollars. Between October 2025 and March of this year, Trafigura achieved the two most profitable quarters in its history, also thanks to the prices of copper and gold. Gunvor (founded in 2003 by Gennady Timchenko, a loyalist of Russian President Vladimir Putin) earned more in the first quarter of 2026 than in all of 2025, while Mercuria Energy’s capital is expected to achieve a record return of between 25 and 50 percent this year, with profits that could reach 3.2 billion dollars.
These gains come on the back of huge price increases caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has sparked a frantic race to secure the few available oil shipments. On April 9, the US government’s Energy Information Administration predicted a supply drop of about nine million barrels per day: this means that by mid-April, the market had already absorbed 314 million barrels, or 80 percent of the emergency reserves announced by the IEA immediately after the conflict began. According to The Economist, by April 21 the “lost barrels” had already reached 550 million.
That’s why anyone who wants to get oil immediately has to accept sky-high prices: this is the case of Sri Lanka, where this month a barrel cost $286, including shipping and insurance; “the highest price I’ve ever seen and hope I never see again,” commented Georges Elhedery, chief executive of the British bank HSBC. “A manager who asked to remain anonymous,” writes Bloomberg, “said his company was earning up to $20-30 for each barrel delivered, a huge margin considering that this market usually provides a maximum profit of $1 per barrel.”
The huge profits of oil traders are starting to worry some in Switzerland. As Le Monde reports, the first are the operators themselves, worried that their money is attracting criminals. For example in Geneva, where SuisseNégoce, the association of raw materials traders, is concerned about recent cases of burglaries in apartments that the authorities have failed to prevent. The organization has called on the canton to invest the necessary resources to curb crime; otherwise, large companies may be tempted to relocate elsewhere, such as to London or Singapore.
However, there are other factors that worry executives. Some Swiss politicians believe that these companies should be taxed more. Raphael Mahaim, a federal member of parliament for the Greens, emphasizes that “immediate intervention is needed, because oil profits are the result of a conflict that will affect the cost of living in Switzerland. The additional tax revenue could be used to finance public spending and mitigate the social effects of rising prices.”
Mahaim also denounces “the lack of regulation and transparency, which can facilitate shady operations. There is a widespread belief that this sector will be the next major international scandal to hit Switzerland, as happened in the past with “bank secrecy”. According to the NGO Public Eye, the volume of orchestrated trade in the country has reached 90 billion Swiss francs per year, around 10 percent of the national GDP. But “in the case of fraudulent practices, the fines are negligible: a maximum of five million francs. The sanctions are much more severe in the United Kingdom or the United States”.
In fact, commodity traders have chosen Switzerland precisely for its combination of tax breaks, political stability and relatively liberal laws. There is a fear that stricter rules could force them to leave. Everyone remembers that “after the imposition of sanctions on Russia in the spring of 2022, Russian oil traders moved to Dubai, from where they manage the Kremlin’s infamous ‘ghost fleet’. In 2010, Geneva controlled up to 80 percent of Russian oil exports.”
In the wealthy town of Rolle, on the shores of Lake Geneva, Le Monde writes, the number of foreign managers driving around in noisy luxury cars is increasing. “A municipal councilor commented, between humor and displeasure: We can't say we adore these people. But even though they pay less tax, it is precisely their taxes that will finance the new nursery school.”/ Pamphlet from "Internazionale"
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