Trader and shipowner Vitol has logged revenue of $231bn for 2018 as oil volumes rose.

It traded 7.4m barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and products last year.

CEO Russell Hardy said the performance was "stable."

"We continue to manage our business prudently with a focus on the careful management of both physical and financial risks," he added.

Crude and product trading volumes, excluding LNG and LPG, increased slightly to 357m tonnes from 349m tonnes in 2017.

The biggest part of the business remain crude, volumes of which rose to 3.8m bpd, an increase of 1.5m bpd over the last five years.

Product volumes have been mixed, with a 30% increase in gasoline volumes to 44m tonnes largely offset by some decline in fuel oil and naphtha volumes, it said.

Hardy said the LNG business continues to grow, with volumes up at 7.8m tonnes.

An IPO on the Euronext exchange in Amsterdam for its 33%-owned unit Varo Energy was pulled during the year due to unfavourable market conditions.

Oil to remain vital

Looking ahead, Hardy said: "There is an increasing focus on the long-term outlook for oil demand.

"We are supportive of the need to move to more renewable sources of energy. However, at present, we do not see how this can be achieved across all sectors in the near to mid-term, without halting economic development in large parts of the world.

"We anticipate that oil demand will continue to grow for the next 15 years, even with a marked increase in the sales of electric vehicles, but that demand growth will begin to be impacted thereafter."

The company said on Monday it had acquired the remaining 50% of its asphalt tanker joint venture VALT from Sargeant Marine of the US.