Neste Oil has moved its oil trading operations from London to Switzerland.
“Geneva has developed into the centre of trading in oil, and therefore moving our business there is only natural”, Neste Oil explains.
The person in charge of the Geneva office is Heikki Saarinen, who has formerly acted as the Neste Oil Group Treasurer in Finland.
Both Russian and Arab oil firms trade in Geneva. Companies such as Total and Lukoil are also present there.
Of its around EUR 15 billion net sales, Neste Oil accumulates 60 per cent from the Finnish and Swedish market. The remaining 40 per cent is now sold through Geneva to elsewhere in Europe and the United States.
“In Europe the economic crisis manifests itself in the reduced demand for petrol and the stalled increase of demand for diesel”, Saarinen says.
Geneva has risen to rival London as the leading raw materials trading centre in Europe. This is because of the proximity of the Swiss finance hub. There is a concentration of private banks in Geneva, but the offices of large international banking establishments are also to be found there.
According to Swiss estimates around a third of the oil sold annually in the world - some 700 million tons - is traded through Geneva. Of oil and oil products originating from Russia, up to 75 per cent are sold in Geneva.
There are no less than 350 international trading companies operating in the city.
