According to Reuters, the biggest trader of Russian oil Gunvor has set its sights on assets in North America, namely parts of the JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s operation. Gunvor’s interest is motived by the recent boom in shale oil production.

Torbjorn Tornqvist, one of the founders of Gunvor and the com­pany’s chief executive, outlined the goals of the commodity trader Gun­vor in North America. In particular, he expressed interest in purchasing for USD3.3 billion Chase’s physical trading business.

Mr. Tornqvist confirmed that Gunvor has contacted JPMorgan and that the trader has been looking at some of the U.S. entity’s assets, adding that it is an important part of Gunvor’s busi­ness to study other assets. Out of the 10 different assets that the trader has looked at, it will ultimately buy one or two. Gunvor has confirmed that it is planning to expand its assets for all commodities, not only for oil.

As to Chase’s assets, storage tanks in Canada and the Henry Bath global network of metal warehouses have been up for sale. According to the American company, stricter regula­tions and politics have forced the bank to reevaluate its involvement in commodities trading.

Gunvor, which is based in Switzer­land, mainly concentrates on commod­ities trading. Rosneft, Surgut, and TNK-BP are among its biggest partners. At one point in the recent past, Gunvor was solely responsible for 40 percent of Russia’s seaborne crude exports.

Vitol and Glencore picked up some of the Russian oil exports recently, partnering with Rosneft, which al­lowed Gunvor to switch to other commodities across the world. To­day, only a third of Gunvor’s diver­sified business consists of Russian crude oil shipping, according to Mr. Tornqvist. The other two thirds of the company’s business now consist of gasoline and diesel sales, refining and metallurgy. As Mr. Tornqvist put it, “Gunvor is a global diversified company where Russia plays an ex­tremely important role.”

The company recently found a new niche in exporting LPG, or liquid pe­troleum gas, from the United States. LPG is a byproduct of shale oil pro­duction and is differently regulated during export than crude oil.

“The logistical bottlenecks that have sprung up in North America due to the shale oil revolution and the grow­ing output from Canada’s oil sands had generally created attractive trad­ing opportunities,” said Mr. Tornqvist, adding that the United States is now one of the main producers of pro­cessed gasoline, diesel, and natural gas.

Gunvor saw attractive opportunities in trading the by-products of natural gas refining in the U.S. The company will continue exploring this newly dis­covered niche. “We look forward to being involved in similar projects in the future,” Mr. Tornqvist empha­sized. “There will also be blending opportunities between the heavy crude oils from Canada and the lighter U.S. crude oils. There will be good opportunities in North America for many years to come,” Gunvor’s chief executive noted.

Hardisty, Alberta is home to a large storage facility for Canadian sand oil. It is also a transportation center. More than 25 percent of the oil tanks at one local facility are subject to long term leases by JPMorgan Chase. Enbridge Inc., an oil pipeline company that owns the tanks, leased over six million barrels of space to JPMorgan.

During 2011 and 2012 Gunvor in­vested USD400 million in a coal mine in Montana. Coal production at that location recently experienced prob­lems. In order to boost sales, Gun­vor brought in specialists in metal­lurgy.

Two thirds of the company’s en­ergy business comes from refined products, resulting in a decline for raw materials trading. Gunvor learned an important lesson in Russia from conducing oil exports. The company prefers to sell high-quality products, not high volumes of unprocessed materials. Mr. Tornqvist said that in Russia Gunvor purchased a number of oil terminals as part of its strategy.

The company expects steady and stable growth in moderate increments in the near future. No dramatic jumps in expenses or revenues are noted in the forecast.

In 2012, Gunvor purchased two oil refineries in Europe from the Petro- plus company, which was going out of business. Mr. Tornqvist empha­sized that Gunvor had more success with the newly-purchased facilities than its predecessor, despite the present economic slump.

“We had a good run on those refin­eries and even this year we have man­aged to keep them profitable. I have no illusions about the difficulties that the European refinery sector will have to go through,” Mr. Tornqvist added.

Mr. Tornqvist expects that oil refineries in the U.S., China, and the Middle East will continue tak­ing business away from the Euro­pean refineries. According to his estimates, five or 10 plants must close down in Europe in the near future. Mr. Tornqvist concluded that while governments would like to be seen doing something, the reality is that there is not much they can do. The inevitable market shrinkage is a process which is both necessary and long overdue.