据美国彭博新闻社2022年9月16日报道，由于天然气和电力价格的剧烈波动迫使欧洲公用事业公司向政府寻求紧急资金，而大型贸易公司却正在安然度过这场能源危机风暴。
欧洲地区的能源危机正在拉高油气价格——仅9月5日一天，天然气期货价格就飙升了35%——令公用事业公司陷入危险境地，因为至少1.5万亿美元的追加保证金要求吸走了该行业的现金。今年早些时候和2021年的类似价格飙升，给摩科瑞能源集团有限公司、贡沃尔集团有限公司、维多集团、托克集团和嘉能可公司等全球顶级大宗商品贸易公司的流动资金带来了压力。
尽管欧洲公用事业公司在追加保证金的要求下举步维艰，引发了人们对“雷曼兄弟”式的危机蔓延至整个欧洲能源行业的担忧，但这一次大型贸易公司的情况有所好转。由于之前的压力，它们已经削减了交易量，并将更多业务转移到场外，缓解了保证金压力，同时提高了信贷额度缓冲和股本，以便在需要时获得更多贷款。
这一转变使大量以私人为主的贸易公司处于如今利润丰厚交易的中心，同时使它们能够继续向买家提供急需的天然气和电力，往往能获得令人瞠目的利润。
美国液化天然气开发商Tellurian公司董事长谢里夫·苏基在一次媒体采访中表示：“我没有看到任何一家大型贸易公司存在流动资金问题，他们都设法找到了信贷额度和银行贷款。”“他们现在赚的钱比以往任何时候都要多。”
过去一年油价飙升，给生产商、公用事业公司和大宗商品贸易商带来了巨大的流动性限制，引发了人们对更广泛金融领域受到连锁影响的担忧。美联储、欧洲央行和国际货币基金组织等机构的官员已敦促监管机构更密切地关注大宗商品交易，或就相关风险发出警告。
过去一年，该领域市场行为的一个重大变化是衍生品和实物天然气和电力交易量下降。
据几位要求不透露姓名的行业高管说，整个市场的对冲在减少，一些交易公司没有对特定的现货头寸进行对冲，而是通过与生产商和最终买家的固定价格交易来抵消价格风险。他们说，由于融资额度的增长速度没有价格增长速度那么快，天然气实物交易量也有所下降。
据交易商说，一些投资者还在购买价外看涨期权，这种期权会在价格极端波动时支付，从而在价格飙升时降低保证金要求。另外，对于石油、金属和谷物等大宗商品，交易公司也不会面临同样的追加保证金要求。
将更多的自由交易所业务转移到与银行的场外交易中，是交易商获得追加保证金要求贷款、并在价格波动时维持头寸的另一种方式。由于基准天然气期货价格在过去一年上涨两倍，天然气利润率飙升，这一点变得越来越重要。
与此同时，大型独立交易商的规模也在扩大，将从波动的大宗商品市场获得的丰厚利润投入股市，以便能够获得更多的银行贷款。例如，贡沃尔和托克的股本在上半年至少上涨了19%。
尽管交易商的资产负债表杠杆率仍然很高，但银行提供的数十亿美元额外信贷为价格飙升提供了缓冲。 据知情人士透露，最近几周，一些商家大量使用了银行贷款。
尽管高昂的价格意味着商人无法获得与爆发军事冲突前同等数量的电力和天然气交易的信贷额度，但这仍足以赚取巨额利润。
咨询公司埃森哲战略主管穆克西特•阿什拉夫今年7月表示：“目前液化天然气货物产生的利润非常可观。”“2020年，一船LNG货物的收益不到100万美元。目前，我们谈论的每船LNG货物的利润已超过1亿美元。”
李峻 编译自 美国彭博新闻社
原文如下：
Big Trading Houses Weathering Energy Crisis
As wild swings in gas and power prices force European utilities to tap governments for emergency cash, trading houses are weathering the storm.
The region’s energy crisis is whipsawing prices -- gas futures surged as much as 35% on Sept. 5 alone -- putting utilities in peril as margin calls of at least $1.5 trillion sucked cash from the sector. Similar price spikes earlier this year and in 2021 strained liquidity at top commodities merchants including Mercuria Energy Group Ltd., Gunvor Group Ltd, Vitol Group, Trafigura Group and Glencore Plc.
While utilities are buckling under margin calls, sparking fears of Lehman Brothers-like contagion risk across Europe’s energy sector, major trading houses are in a better position this time around. Since previous stresses, they’ve cut trading volumes and moved more business off exchanges -- easing margin pressures -- while boosting credit-line buffers and equity to secure more loans if needed.
The shift has kept the clutch of largely private trading houses at the center of what are now highly lucrative trades, while enabling them to keep supplying much-needed gas and power to buyers, often for eye-watering profits.
“I have not seen any of the major trading houses have a liquidity issue, they all managed to find lines of credits and bank facilities,” Charif Souki, chairman of US LNG company Tellurian Inc., said in an interview. “And they are all making more money than they have ever made.”
Soaring prices over the past year put massive liquidity restraints on producers, utilities and traders, sparking worries about the knock-on impact on the broader financial world. Officials at places including the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund have urged regulators to look closer at commodities trading or warned of associated risks.
A big change in merchants’ behavior in the past year has been smaller trading volumes of derivative and physical gas and power.
The whole market is hedging less, and some trading houses aren’t placing hedges on specific physical positions and instead netting off price exposure through fixed-price deals with producers and end buyers, according to several executives who asked not to be identified. Physical gas volumes have also fallen because financing lines haven’t grown as fast as prices, they said.
Some are also buying out-of-the-money call options that pay out on extreme price moves, reducing margin requirements if prices spike, according to traders. Plus, trading houses aren’t facing the same kind of margin calls for commodities like oil, metals and grains.
Shifting more business off-exchange into over-the-counter deals with banks is another way traders are able to secure loans for margin calls and maintain positions when prices swing. That’s becoming more important as gas margins soar with benchmark futures tripling over the past year.
At the same time, major independent traders have got larger, pumping bumper profits from volatile commodities markets into equity to be able to secure bigger bank loans. For example, equity at Gunvor and Trafigura rose at least 19% in the first half.
While traders’ balance sheets remain highly leveraged, billions of dollars in extra credit from banks is providing a buffer for when prices spike. Some merchants have in recent weeks drawn heavily on facilities, according to people familiar with the matter.
Although high prices mean merchants don’t have the credit lines available to trade the same amount of power and gas as before the war, it’s enough to still make huge profits.
“The margins that LNG cargoes are generating these days are significant,” Muqsit Ashraf, who leads strategy at consultancy Accenture, said in July. “In 2020, an LNG cargo was generating less than $1 million. Right now, we are talking margins north of $100 million for every LNG cargo.”
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