Vitol's shipping demand in 2016 made a small gain despite what it called "a challenging environment" in energy trading. Its volumes rose across the board with the largest gains in LPG and refined products trading, but coal also saw good demand.
The trading firm made 6,809 ship journeys last year, compared to 6,629 in 2015.
Chief executive Ian Taylor said "performance in 2016 was solid, despite challenging market conditions." Overall turnover for the company dropped 10% to $152bn, due to lower oil prices.
Overall crude oil and product trading was up 16% last year to 351 million metric tonnes, averaging over 7 million barrels per day.
Crude oil made up the largest portion of Vitol's trading activities, representing 3.4 million barrels per day of volume and 16% higher than 2015.
Poten & Partners ranked Vitol the number three dirty tanker charterer last year, behind China's Unipec and Shell, with some 651 fixtures recorded. Poten said Vitol is the sixth largest suezmax charterer and the top aframax charterer.
Better gains were seen in its refined products business, with gasoline and gasoil volumes up 44% and 26% last year. It noted increased demand in established markets such as the US and Australia, and a growing presence in African markets for the gains.
Vitol's LPG business saw the largest volume gain at 131%. It cited growing volumes of LPG as home and cooking fuel across Asia and Africa as providing growth opportunities. Likewise, Vitol said it was planning to help switch African power plants off of fuel oil and diesel to cleaner burning LPG.
Vitol also said the coal market "experienced a resurgence" in 2016, with prices doubling thanks to the limits in operating days for Chinese mines. It said the overall Asian coal market gained thanks to 50 gigawatts of new coal fired power stations added during 2016.
Vitol also said its joint venture in asphalt tankers with Sargeant Marine is moving some 1.3 million metric tonnes, on "one of the largest dedicated asphalt fleets in the world."
