In this edition, our Talent Intelligence team explores how commodity trading joint ventures are building commercial capability, reshaping talent requirements and creating demand for broader expertise around the trading desk.
Read on for a preview of the report. The full whitepaper can be accessed by completing the form below.
A New Wave of Commodity Trading Partnerships
Over the past two years, a steady flow of commodity trading joint ventures has been announced or explored. Across energy, metals, and agriculture, asset owners are partnering with established traders to develop commercial capabilities, improve market access, and capture more value from physical flows.
This is not a new model. Commodity trading JVs have emerged in waves for more than three decades. Some have become enduring commercial platforms, while others were eventually absorbed by an asset owner once the required knowledge, infrastructure, and trading disciplines were established.
A Proven Model Returns to Commodity Trading
The first major wave arrived in the 1990s and early 2000s, producing ventures such as ChinaOil, Unipec, EDF Trading, Gaselys, Entergy-Koch and Metal One. Further models followed in the 2010's, including Oman Trading, JERA Global Markets and ADNOC Global Trading.
Activity is now accelerating again. Five ventures have been announced, launched or discussed across 2025 and 2026, including partnerships involving Indian Oil and Vitol, ONGC, Mercuria and Eni, Tata International and Mercuria, and TotalEnergies and Bapco Energies through BxT Trading.
This renewed interest is grounded in a clear exchange of strategic value. Asset owners can contribute physical flows, infrastructure and market presence. Trading partners bring commercial expertise, systems, risk management and access to specialist talent. The potential prize is greater optimisation, optionality and margin capture.
But the partnership model is only the starting point. The more difficult question is what the JV is intended to become.
The Talent Model Must Follow the Commercial Purpose
Some JVs are designed to transfer capability before the business is taken in-house. Others are intended to become enduring commercial platforms. Some have a narrower mandate around defined flows, logistics or execution.
These distinctions shape the organisation a JV needs. They influence its leadership profile, operating model, and the balance among trading, origination, risk, operations, and other specialist capabilities. Hiring several senior traders is therefore not the same as building a trading business.
Talent is central, but it is only one part of the equation. Successful execution also depends on aligning the JV’s mandate, risk appetite, governance, systems and incentives.
The lesson from three decades of precedent is not that every JV should last forever. It is that the best ones are built around a clear purpose, a realistic operating model, and people capable of turning strategic intent into a functioning trading business.
From Ambition to Execution
Trading JVs can provide a faster route to commercial capability and closer access to physical markets. But structure alone is not enough. Success depends on aligning the JV’s commercial purpose, operating model and talent strategy from the outset. When that alignment is in place, commercial ambition has a far greater chance of becoming a functioning trading business.
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