Trafigura

Founded in 1993, Trafigura is a company that specialises in trading base metals as well as energy (including oil). Since it was founded Trafigura has now grown into a company with equity in excess of US$1bn with a turnover last year of US$57bn. It operates out of over 55 offices in 36 countries in Europe and North, Central, and South America, as well as in the Middle and Far East.

Trafigura was set up by Claude Dauphin and Eric de Turkheim who had worked as oil traders at Glencore, a company based in Zug, Switzerland. [cite book
last = Timmerman
first = Kenneth
title = The French Betrayal of America
publisher = Crown Forum (New York)
date = 2004-03-16
url = http://www.acepilots.com/unscam/archives/000926.html
format = html
accessdate = 2007-05-18]

Oil-for-Food Scandal

The company was named in the Oil-for-Food Scandal [cite news
last = Hoyos
first = Carola
title = Big oil groups implicated in oil-for-food scandal
publisher = Financial Times
date = 2005-10-28
url = http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1f250dd4-47de-11da-a949-00000e2511c8.html
format = html
accessdate = 2007-05-18 ] , for example, in connection with the Essex, a Liberian registered "turbine-tanker" that had UN approval to load Iraqi crude at Iraq’s main export terminal at Mina al-Bakr. The tanker was chartered by Trafigura Beheer BV and according to its captain, Theofanis Chiladakis, the Essex was at least twice 'topped off' with an extra 272,000 barrels of crude after UN monitors had signed off the cargo. This was on May 13 and August 27, 2001, however, Elf-Aquitaine employees first talked about this scheme in February 1998.

---------------------A Trafigura subsidiary called Roundhead, Inc. had bought the oil from a subsidiary of the French oil trader, Ibex Energy and claimed it paid Ibex a "premium" of 40 cents per barrel over the official United Nations selling price. In early October 2001, U.S. warships intercepted the Essex off the coast of Curacao before it could offload its illegal cargo. This resulted in more than US$5 million in additional shipping costs for Trafigura, and led them to sue Ibex in a London court for having misled them. But Ibex managing director Jean-Paul Cayre claimed in an affadavit that Trafigura had cooked up the scheme to "make up for an earlier loss on an Iraqi oil deal that fell through in 1999." [cite book
last = Timmerman
first = Kenneth
title = The French Betrayal of America
publisher = Crown Forum (New York)
date = 2004-03-16
url = http://www.acepilots.com/unscam/archives/000926.html
format = html
accessdate = 2007-05-18]

Waste dumping in Côte d'Ivoire

On July 2, 2006, the Probo Koala, a ship leased by the company, entered a port in Amsterdam to unload a few hundred tons of waste, or "slops". [cite news
last = Polgreen
first = Lydia
coauthors = Marlise Simons
title = Global Sludge Ends in Tragedy for Ivory Coast
publisher = New York Times
date = 2006-10-01
url = http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/02/world/africa/02ivory.html
format = html
accessdate = 2006-03-06 ] Amsterdam Port Services BV, the company that had been contracted to take the waste, raised their price to process the waste 20-fold soon after delivery, after determining the waste was more toxic than previously understood. In response, Trafigura decided to have the ship take back the waste and have it processed en route to a different processing site in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, one of Africa's largest seaports. In Abidjan, the waste was handed over to a local licensed processing company, Compagnie Tommy. However the processing company illegally dumped the waste instead of processing it. Many people there became sick due to exposure to the waste, and investigations were begun to determine whether it was intentionally dumped by Trafigura. Trafigura have stated in a press statement that their tests show the waste not to be as toxic as has been claimed, and they are unsure why so many people have become ill from exposure to it. [cite web
title = Trafigura Tests Contradict Media Speculation
publisher = Trafigura
date = 2006-09-24
url = http://www.trafigura.com/trafigura_news/probo_koala_updates/press_statement_24092006.aspx
format = html
accessdate = 2007-03-06]

"The New York Times" reported on October 3, 2006 that the dumping of the contents of the ship, which was carried out by Compagnie Tommy, was indeed illegal.

On February 13, 2007, in response to the deaths of 10 people (the number of which has subsequently increased), and the various illnesses of over 100,000 people attributed to the waste, Trafigura paid 152 million Euros to Côte d'Ivoire in compensation. The payment also exonerated Trafigura from further legal proceedings in Côte d'Ivoire.

On February 19, 2007, Côte d'Ivoire attributed the deaths of 5 more people to the waste dump, raising the total to 15. [cite news
title = Death toll from ICoast pollution rises to 15
publisher = Reuters
date = 2007-02-19
url = http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40390/story.htm
format = html
accessdate = 2007-03-06]

On May 18, 2007, the Dutch newspaper "Volkskrant" reported that the press officer of Trafigura (operating under the username "Press Office T NL") attempted to alter the Dutch Wikipedia article on three separate occasions, with intent to clear their name. The page is now locked and is not accessible for modifications. [cite news
title = Tot drie keer toe is het lemma over het gifschip Probo Koala veranderd. Tevergeefs.
publisher = ANP
date = 2007-05-18
url = http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/article426613.ece/Rederij_gifschip_poogt_blazoen_te_zuiveren_op_Wikipedia
format = html
accessdate = 2007-05-18]

Chemical explosion in Norway

The Vest Tank-explosion happened May 24, 2007 in Gulen, Sogn og Fjordane in Norway. It have had severe environmental consequences. The company Vest Tank was trying to neutralize the same kind of chemical that was dumped in the Ivory Coast when the explosion happened. The owner of the waste were trafigura, and Vest Tank were working on behalf of them. [cite news
title = Vest Tank sweetened coker gasoline
publisher = NRK
date = 2008-06-24
url = http://nrk.no/programmer/tv/brennpunkt/1.6104693
format = html
accessdate = 2008-09-05] [cite news
title = A small pawn in the game
publisher = NRK
date = 2008-06-24
url = http://nrk.no/programmer/tv/brennpunkt/1.6104888
format = html
accessdate = 2008-09-05] [cite news
title = Coker gasoline – low quality
publisher = NRK
date = 2008-06-24
url = http://nrk.no/programmer/tv/brennpunkt/1.6105347
format = html
accessdate = 2008-09-05]

tructure

Some of Trafigura's major international units include:

* Trafigura Beheer BV, based in the Netherlands
* Trafigura AG, is the main office, based in Lucerne, Switzerland, also deals with business in the United States.
* Trafigura Pte Ltd runs the Group’s petroleum trading in the Far East.
* Puma Group of Companies which operate the Group’s world-wide oil storage and distribution assets and investments.
* Galena Asset Management, based in London and FSA registered, is the subsidiary through which Trafigura has established and manages a fund management business.

ee also

* 2006 Ivory Coast toxic waste spill

References

External links

* http://www.trafigura.com/, the Trafigura Web site.
* http://www.trafigura.com/trafigura_news/probo_koala_updates.aspx, Company press releases regarding the Côte d'Ivoire waste dumping incident.