Emerging shipbroker Oil Brokerage has joined established industry players on the Baltic Exchange tanker panel as the first new member for two years.
The Baltic confirmed the appointment of the ambitious James McNicol-led operation after a period of assessment as the shipbroking arm of the London-headquartered oil market specialist continues to expand with new appointments.
The company joins nearly 30 other members of the tanker panel and is the first signed up since global shipbroking group Affinity joined in August 2021, the Baltic said.
The Baltic’s panels provide daily indices and assessments of the maritime markets that are used to benchmark physical contracts and as general indicators of the state of the industry.
Oil Brokerage also announced that it was strengthening its research team with the hiring of Gary Morgan, a Clarksons Platou veteran based in Houston, Texas.
The appointment is the latest by former Vitol chartering executive Nick Mahoney, who was brought on board last year to build a shipbroking team to challenge the industry’s biggest players.
The recruitment of Morgan builds on last year’s appointment of Singapore-based former Braemar tanker analyst Anoop Singh to head a new research team.
Mahoney said Morgan, who is due to start with the company in London in September, will work closely with Singh and look to expand the company’s presence in the Americas region.
Oil Brokerage has also hired Ahmed Ali, a former seafarer, who has been working in chartering for Libya’s General National Maritime Transport Co for the last four years. He will work on the projects team with responsibility for time charters and sale-and-purchase deals.
Mahoney said further hires are expected.
“It just shows that Oil Brokerage’s shipbroking group is looking to grow as we see opportunities in the market,” he said.
The company, which has offices in London, Singapore, the US and Dubai, is looking to build the shipbroking team alongside its established oil-broking business.
