MET International establishes LNG trading desk

Switzerland-based MET International, the natural gas trading arm of MET Group, has created a liquefied natural gas (LNG) trading desk that will be based at the company’s headquarters in Zug, Switzerland.

Diego Galimberti, who was previously the head of long-term gas supplies and LNG at Axpo Trading, has been hired to lead the company’s new LNG trading desk, Beatrix Staár, a spokeswoman at MET Group said in an emailed statement to LNG World News on Thursday.

Galimberti joined MET International on March 1 to help secure liquefied natural gas for the company’s portfolio. He will work in the wholesale & origination department and report to the head of wholesale and origination, György Domokos Vargha.

As MET Group has a considerable sized sales portfolio focusing on industrial clients and power plants mainly in the illiquid parts of Europe, it is continuously optimizing its source portfolio leveraging on the extensive logistics and trading capabilities it has been building in the last 5 years on a pan-European scale. Now MET is prepared to extend these capabilities to the global gas markets – and the timing seems good since MET is convinced that LNG will become competitive in the coming years also in the European energy mix,”  Staár said in the statement.

“As such, there is a natural fit with the MET portfolio in focusing on European LNG imports on a medium-term basis, yet the LNG desk will also focus on prompt opportunities given its risk appetite and growing global relationship portfolio,” she added.

MET International (METI) was established in 2010 in order to consolidate and develop MET Group’s international natural gas sales and purchase portfolio as well as establish a trading arm for additional commodity lines.

According to its website, MET Group is active in the natural gas, oil and power generation business. Headquartered in Zug, the company is represented in eight European countries, with permanent staff located in Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

 

LNG World News Staff