ADNOC hires Squarepoint’s Benoit Roulon to lead trading arm

Benoit Roulon, a veteran oil trader at hedge fund Squarepoint Capital, has been hired by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. to head its trading arm.

The move comes as ADNOC Trading plans to boost the volume it handles by two-thirds in the next few years as it undergoes a major international expansion, Bloomberg reports. It follows the UAE’s decision to quit OPEC in April, giving it more freedom to expand oil production and trading outside of restrictive quotas.

The UAE is targeting oil production capacity of 5 million barrrels a day, compared to 3.6 million barrels a day earlier this year.

At Squarepoint, which has headquarters in London and New York, Roulon has been leading a push into physical oil since the start of the year. Before that, he was head of crude oil trading for Gunvor and also worked at TotalEnergies.

ADNOC’s trading business has an office in Geneva and plans to open an outpost in Houston, Texas, next year.