SOCAR Trading to quit Calgary, move some functions to U.S.

SOCAR Trading to quit Calgary, move some functions to U.S.
# 10 November 2017 08:42 (UTC +04:00)

Azeri state oil company SOCAR's North American trading division will close its Calgary office in Canada and move all commercial and support functions to Houston in the next three to four months, according to a letter on Thursday reviewed by Reuters.

The company, which entered the Canadian market in 2015 and opened a Houston office in late 2016, said Houston had continued to grow and had increasingly become a hub for its activities in North America, according to the letter.

It was not clear if any staff would relocate to Houston. The company had around 15 people in Calgary when it opened and traded local Canadian crude grades, natural gas and financial derivatives, its chief executive told Reuters last year.

SOCAR Trading also said in the letter that while the plans do not affect any current business, it would likely reduce the scope of some of its activities over the coming months. It added that it would continue to operate "business as usual" to meet any physical and financial commitments.

Geneva-based SOCAR Trading was set up in 2007 as the marketing arm of Azerbaijan's national oil company, and has since moved to trading third-party crude and products.

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