For Vitol, oil is just the beginning. The company mixes different types of fuel to obtain a product of exactly the right quality for a particular region, customer or even season. To guarantee an uninterrupted supply, Vitol pays in advance to companies such as Russia’s Rosneft, or to entire governments, such as the oil-rich Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. Having sold this oil, it will recoup all its costs a hundredfold. Craig Pirrong, professor of economics and finance at the University of Houston, says that while Vitol is perceived as a speculator, the company actually acts as a middleman. It turns supertankers into floating oil storage tanks, carefully timing the…

Vitol in its current form began taking shape in 1990, when Dettinger and seven other partners sold the company for between $100m and $200m (the actual figures have not been disclosed) to a team of around 40 employees, including Taylor. The buyout was financed by Dutch bank ABN and former trader Tom Wonk took over as CEO. Since then, no single shareholder has controlled more than 5% of the company – Taylor and his team call this the “we culture” and claim it has been the cornerstone of Vitol’s success. Bake says: “If someone thinks they are bigger or better than all of us together, sooner or later they will…