- ExxonMobil (XOM +0.2%) is considering building a full-scale trading division for the first time in its history, as it searches for new ways to boost profits during the oil price slump, Financial Times reports.
- The move would be a major change for a company that has deliberately shunned trading other producers’ oil, but the two-year oil downturn has prompted some XOM execs to consider the case for establishing a trading division that buys and sells other producers’ crude and refined products as well as its own, according to the report.
- The large trading divisions of BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Total have earned substantial profits during the downturn, which surely has caught the eye of XOM top brass.