Beluga’s crude oil team have strong technical capabilities, understand the physical flows of oil and provide access to the market for Crude Oil Producers to effectively market and distribute their daily production. Our Crude Desk focuses on African producers, which is our main source of Supply, from State owned (NOCs – National Oil Companies), independent producers and oil majors. We provide marketing solutions and assist refineries with bespoke crude blends. Our crude oil traders have access to long-term supplies, global refineries and can deliver crude anywhere our customers require.
Beluga’s crude oil origination team and traders have the expertise to develop commercial structures for local independent producers, to market their daily production to the global market and also to finance producers’ operations in return for off-take. We offer commercial support and bespoke structured transactions and financial expertise.
The LNG market has evolved significantly over the last 10 years, we can see the significant shift from Resource holders directly to Buyers, to traders (portfolio players) now playing a significant role and the growth of short term/ spot contracts. Commodity traders accounted for 9% of global LNG trade in 2017, this trend is increasing and there’s also the emergence of new LNG demand from emerging markets. Customers are recognizing the flexibility of LNG as a traded commodity and the reliance of the spot market to balance demand. Beluga has positioned itself to support both ends of the LNG chain.
Beluga’s acknowledged trading expertise has placed its LNG trading team in a unique position to manage Master Sales Agreements (MSAs) and Master Sales Purchase Agreements of trading partners who sign agreements with two LNG suppliers. This means we can offer spot, short or long- term LNG supply arrangements.
We use a fleet of LNG ships on spot charter, working closely with globally recognized LNG ship brokers and owners, our LNG team can deliver LNG globally.
Beluga energy is developing its natural gas desk and we see future arbitrage opportunities between LNG and Natural gas, which allows us to anticipate and adapt to market movement and absorb LNG cargoes within a short duration.
Beluga has developed LNG markets in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Far East.
The LPG market is a growing and evolving market. Beluga is one of the major indigenous traders in the WAF region. Our global trading team sources LPG from major producers in Africa and the Middle East for high demand areas in Africa, Asia and Europe. We are long-term participants in the global LPG market and our annual target is to trade 540,000mt of LPG annually. We work closely with dedicated LPG chartering companies, who ensure we offer our customers an end-to-end service.
Beluga in partnership with a local company in Nigeria, has invested substantially in LPG infrastructure i.e. building a new LPG storage facility and access to a distribution network. Our local partners are one of the largest distributors of LPG locally within Nigeria. Beluga’s LPG desk trades in both the large VLGC market and the smaller pressurized or semi refrigerated tanker market.
Beluga’s condensate/naphtha desk are participants in the global condensate/naphtha market. We have off-take agreements and participate in monthly international spot tenders. Our customer base includes refineries, splitters, gasoline blenders and petrochemical companies. We source condensate and naphtha actively from Africa and Europe. The Condensate/Naphtha traders work closely with the Gasoline, Crude and LPG desks to assess relative pricing due to the relative close link of the various products to Condensate/Naphtha. We are reliable traders of condensate/naphtha and provide commercial solutions for condensate/naphtha producers who have off spec or contaminant issues.
Beluga’s Gasoline desk operates efficiently in the gasoline market, we respond to the supply and demand dynamics of our customers. Gasoline specification varies by region, we guarantee to deliver the right specification, quality and volume in a timely manner. We source gasoline from refineries, blenders and deliver cost effective gasoline to our customers. We sell gasoline to private downstream oil marketing companies, International oil companies operating regionally and to state owned oil companies. Our gasoline desks are flexible and react quickly to supply disruptions in regions we operate in. Beluga’s gasoline traders are active in Europe, America and West Africa (our main region of demand). We are growing our presence in the rapidly evolving Far Eastern market. Our logistics capability allows us to meet the demands of our customers.
Our middle distillates trading team covers jet fuel and gas oil. We source cargoes from Europe and Asia, when the arbitrage opportunity opens, in large clips for the West Africa market. Our trading team adapts to the continuously changing pattern of trade in the WAF region and also buys middle distillates cargoes offshore West Africa to meet any immediate changing market conditions. We charter a wide range of tonnage through our shipping desk to provide prompt supply for our customers. Beluga stores middle distillates, in our owned terminals or leases storage to provide prompt supply for our customers without storage capacity. We have built our middle distillates business on long-term relationships and the quality of our operations, which makes us reliable suppliers of middle distillates.
Our fuel oil trading team has in-depth knowledge of the global fuel oil market. We use our expertise and market reach to help sellers optimize the value of the fuel oil from their refineries. The origination team develops relationships with refineries, power generators and bunker fuel traders. 10% of fuel oil produced globally is used to power large ships. Heating consumption is approximately 15% and the remaining bulk is used as feedstock for refineries. Our understanding of this market allows us to add value for our fuel oil customers.
We supply fuel oil as bunker fuel to ships and can import fuel oil into local regions for industries and also distribute within the region. Beluga provides the reassurances of delivering on specification and on time.
Bitumen is a product primarily used by construction companies mainly for road surfaces or roofing. Beluga has a growing presence in Bitumen. We source bitumen globally to meet the local demands of the regions we operate in. Our trading team has in-depth awareness of market developments and responds efficiently to the request of our customers. Beluga is a major importer of Bitumen into the Nigerian market.
In our quest to become fully vertically integrated, Beluga Energy Limited is taking giants steps into carving our niche petroleum exploration and production footprints.
We continue to place premium value on highly committed E&P technical and commercial professionals, with robust experience and extensive track record within the upstream oil and gas industry. Our team comprises of highly knowledgeable asset managers and senior technical members with combined 60+ years of industry experience managing subsurface reservoir and engineering projects.
Our approach is to seek assured entrance through Farm-in into producing assets and de-risked assets nearing production, and this shall be executed through a disciplined and systematic pursuit of exploration, appraisal, development and producing opportunities.
Our immediate focus is on Nigeria and Cameroon, with future expansion into other proven basins across Africa. At all time, we shall maintain a balanced portfolio of both Exploration and Producing Assets, with near-term goal of achieving low-cost operations of acquired oil blocks.
Beluga works with its customers to provide structured long term off take arrangements. Providing the knowhow and tools for companies to protect themselves from commodity price movements. We provide these structures to private and state-owned energy companies.
Beluga’s Freight desk provides maritime logistics services to all the various trading desks and third-party customers. The maritime team are internal service providers securing reliable, safe and competitive freight across our active trading teams. The imbalance of supply and demand necessitates the movement of crude oil and oil products globally and regionally. Our freight team faces these challenges daily and ensures they deliver the various energy commodities, timely, competitively and safely every time.
Beluga invests strategically in value chain assets that support our physical trading activities. Physical trading is our core business and the heart of what we do. We realize being embedded within the value chain creates a platform that enables us to expand the flows of our physical trading business. Working with our local partners we have an expanding downstream presence that complements our daily trading activities.
Terminals complement our trading activities and provide ready access to physical flows, allowing us reach customers further down the value chain. Beluga has access to a gasoline and middle distillates terminal in Nigeria. We are also working with local partners to build LPG storage in Lagos-Nigeria.
Beluga with its local partner has 10 petrol stations strategically located in Nigeria, this further extends the reach of our physical energy flow along the value chain. We are looking to grow this retail outlet over the next five years.