Trafigura’s head of tanker chartering, Rasmus Bach Nielsen, is moving on from his shipping role to take up a new position in his home country of Denmark.

Well-known industry face Bach Nielsen, who has been global head of wet freight shipping since he joined Trafigura in August 2014, is understood to be taking up a position with the trading giant's new power and renewables team which is still to be "further defined", sources close to the company said.

Returning home

Bach Nielsen is said to be making a return from Geneva to Denmark with his family for personal reasons.

Coming from a shipping background, where he worked with AP Moller-Maersk, Maersk Tankers, Scorpio Tankers and Navig8, Bach Nielsen has been well-tuned into the sector.

During his time with the company, he has overseen a large newbuilding programme. The company ordered 35 tankers from Chinese and South Korean yards in 2017 and 2018 on the back of financing provided by Bank of Communications Financial Leasing.

Last year, Trafigura swapped its leasehold interests in 10 suezmaxes, 15 MRs and four LR2s from the order for cash and equity in Frontline and Scorpio Tankers in two transactions that achieved net profits of $201m in total.

Nielsen recently urged regulators to take a tougher stance on enforcing the IMO's 2020 bunkering requirements.

"We must now, at a time requiring unprecedented actions, use the IMO to provide further leadership," he wrote in TradeWinds.

"We are concerned that actions will be technical, impractical and not fully thought through."

Enter Olivi

Bach Nielsen will be replaced by Andrea Olivi, who currently works in the company’s chartering and freight trading arm in Geneva since September 2015.

Andrea Olivi, whose been with Trafigura for almost 5 years will take over from Rasmus as global head of wet freight Ssipping in mid July.

Olivi, a finance and Spanish graduate who has an MBA from the Cass Business School, formerly worked as chartering manager for Socar Trading and prior to that in similar tanker roles at Teekay.

Olivi will take over from Bach Nielsen in mid-July.

Eric Martin contributed to this article