Trading 213 SA
A proposal to incorporate a commodity trading company in Geneva under State-shareholder control, and to build the platform that extends the group’s commercial visibility across primary allocation, secondary resale and settlement of Algerian exports.
1Executive summary
Algeria already operates a major, diversified export portfolio. For a significant share of those flows, commercial control and visibility diminish rapidly after the initial sale or delivery point: freight, destination, resale and final-market intelligence increasingly sit outside the group’s direct commercial book, while the State carries the reserve, the depletion risk and the political exposure.
This document proposes the incorporation of Trading 213 SA, a Geneva société anonyme controlled by the State shareholder, licensed to hold title and to trade physical and paper positions across the export book. It proposes a control platform — described in section 7 — that enforces the shareholder's authority over primary allocation in software rather than in reporting. And it proposes a deliberate multipolar posture across buyers, currencies and markets, so that no single counterparty, banking system or jurisdiction can set the price or the pace at which Algerian reserves are monetised.
Phase one is not a change of customer. Existing term buyers keep their volumes and simply face a group entity rather than an intermediary. What changes is that the group becomes the trader of record on incremental barrels, and that it can see the secondary market it currently sells into blind.
2The export book, from public sources
The scale of the opportunity can be established without any internal data. On public reporting — OPEC’s Annual Statistical Bulletin, the Energy Institute Statistical Review and the national producer’s published 2025–2029 programme — Algerian pipeline gas exports were in the order of 49 billion cubic metres in 2024, against more than 52 billion in 2023, and LNG exports were between 11 and 12 million tonnes. The national producer has announced a capital programme of some USD 60 billion for 2025–2029 and a gas production target near 200 billion cubic metres within five years, against roughly 137 billion in 2023. Refinery output is majority-domestic, with naphtha, fuel oil, base oils and aromatics the principal export cuts.
Two observations follow. The first is that the export book is large enough that a small captured margin is a material number: at 40 million tonnes of oil equivalent managed by the desk and USD 0.50 per barrel equivalent of incremental captured commercial margin, the illustrative gross value-capture potential is approximately USD 145 million a year — before platform, staffing, financing, hedging and operating costs, and to be validated during Phase 1. The second is that a production target rising towards 200 bcm makes the marketing question more urgent, not less: incremental volume has to be placed, and placing it through the same handful of intermediaries deepens exactly the dependency this proposal is meant to reduce.
3What is wrong with the present arrangement
Visibility ends at loading. Once a cargo is lifted there is no systematic record of where it discharges or at what price it changes hands. Destination clauses exist in some contracts but are not monitored against vessel movement, so a breach is discovered, if at all, long after it is actionable.
Concentration is not measured at group level. Allocation decisions are taken product by product. Nobody aggregates exposure across crude, condensate, LNG, LPG, refined cuts and fertilizer to the same ultimate parent, so concentration accumulates without a decision.
Pressure is applied where we cannot see it. Differentials and demand signals are shaped in the secondary market. A seller present only in the primary market reads the outcome and never the cause, and therefore negotiates against a price it did not help form.
Settlement is monocurrency by default. Dollar settlement is the path of least resistance, which makes one clearing system load-bearing for the State's principal revenue line.
4The switch to Geneva
| Criterion | What Geneva offers |
|---|---|
| Physical trading cluster | Deep and oriented to physical crude and products — the desk sits among its counterparties |
| Trade finance | Established commodity banks with multi-currency practice |
| Settlement flexibility | USD, EUR, AED and CNY all practicable through resident banks |
| Trading-room talent | Available; trading rooms have been built there from zero |
| Standing for the shareholder | Neutral jurisdiction with a long institutional trading tradition |
This is a staged switch of the book to Geneva, not a parallel run: one entity of record at every moment. Named London seats remain through the transition where relationships, clearing or continuity require it — that list is prepared deliberately, together with the information flows each seat carries.
5Multipolar by construction
Diversification here is not a slogan but three quantified constraints written into the desk's mandate and enforced by the platform.
Buyers. A cap per counterparty and a stricter cap per ultimate parent, applied across every product line, so that no single house holds a load-bearing share of the book. The proposed year-one figure is 15 per cent per ultimate parent, to be confirmed by the board.
Currencies. Target settlement weights across dollar, euro, dirham and renminbi, reviewed quarterly, with a floor on non-dollar settlement rather than an aspiration.
Markets. Mediterranean, Atlantic and Asian markets provide commercial optionality: cargo allocation responds to relative market value, subject to contractual, logistical and regulatory constraints.
6Ownership and governance
The State shareholder holds one hundred per cent of the share capital at incorporation. The Swiss board carries a majority of shareholder-appointed directors and an independent chair resident in Switzerland, as Swiss practice expects. Commercial autonomy is real but bounded: the desk sets price and counterparty within a mandate, and the mandate is reserved.
Three matters are reserved to the shareholder and cannot be delegated to the desk: the annual allocation envelope by product and region; the concentration caps; and any sale to a counterparty on the restricted list. All three are enforced in the platform, so control is a property of the system rather than an obligation to report.
Where co-investment is contemplated — for example in downstream or low-carbon assets described in section 9 — it should sit in project vehicles beneath the desk, not in the desk's own equity. The trading company stays wholly owned so that the reserved matters remain unambiguous. Final shareholding, any minority participation, reserved matters and the governance architecture are negotiated during Phase 1; definitive settlement target ratios are defined by the State shareholder with an expert committee.
7The control platform
The platform is not a trading system. It is the control layer above whatever order management system the desk licenses, and it does six things.
Primary allocation with a sovereign hold. Every tender award and term nomination enters with a hold the desk cannot clear on its own authority. A named oversight officer releases it. Nothing loads without a release on the record.
Secondary market tracking. Declared destination is reconciled against vessel movement and against the resale declarations required by contract. Divergence opens a case rather than a line in a report.
Concentration enforcement. Exposure aggregates by counterparty, by ultimate parent and by region across every product. An award that would breach a cap is blocked at entry.
Price-pressure alerts. Differential moves, bid withdrawals and repeated below-index offers from related counterparties are surfaced as patterns, not as individual data points, so coordinated pressure on Algerian grades becomes visible while a tender is still open.
Settlement and currency mix. Realised settlement is measured against the target weights, with variance reported to the shareholder quarterly.
Audit trail. Overrides are permitted, because commercial life requires them, but each carries a reason and a name and is written to an append-only record available to the shareholder and to the ministry.
A working prototype accompanies this proposal — the six control modules plus the desk’s market, quality-control, logistics and settlement-case screens — built from the desk trader’s and the oversight officer's point of view.
8Modelled economics
| Input | Phase one | Steady state | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume on own book | 12 Mtoe | 40 Mtoe | Modelled |
| Captured margin | USD 0.45 / boe | USD 0.50 / boe | Modelled |
| Gross trading contribution | ≈ USD 40m | ≈ USD 145m | Derived |
| Desk headcount | 18 | 46 | Modelled |
| Operating cost, all-in | ≈ USD 22m | ≈ USD 38m | Modelled |
| Net contribution | ≈ USD 18m | ≈ USD 107m | Derived |
Volumes, margins and cost lines above are modelled from public export data and market practice; they are not measured. Working capital and trade-finance lines are excluded and are addressed in the financing annex, which is outstanding.
9Scope and adjacencies
Phase one covers crude and condensate, piped gas and LNG, LPG, and the refined export cuts. Phase two adds ammonia and nitrogen fertilizer, petrochemicals, and selected metals where Algerian production reaches export scale. Phase three follows the country's own industrial direction into low-carbon marine fuels, green-hydrogen derivatives and carbon instruments.
The third phase is worth stating early because it changes who is willing to fund the first. Algeria's combination of existing refining infrastructure, exceptional solar resource, prospective green hydrogen and direct Mediterranean access is already attracting circular-fuels and low-carbon platform proposals — projects whose economics depend on secured offtake and a credible trading counterparty. A desk that exists gives those projects the offtake structure they need; the projects in turn give the desk a product line that European buyers will increasingly require on carbon-intensity grounds.
10Risks and mitigations
| Risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Existing intermediaries reduce liftings in response | Phase the transition; hold term volumes constant in year one and take only incremental barrels onto the desk's book |
| Trading losses on an own-account book | Hard position and value-at-risk limits in the mandate; hedging of physical length only, no directional proprietary book |
| Swiss entity and banking onboarding delay | Start the entity and banking workstream before hiring; it is the critical path, not the recruitment |
| External perception of opacity in trading flows | Published compliance framework, independent chair, external audit of the restricted list from year one |
| Key-person dependency in a small desk | Two traders per product line from the outset; the platform holds the process rather than individuals |
| Working capital demand at scale | Committed borrowing base with two or more Geneva commodity banks before the first own-account lifting |
11Leadership
The desk needs a first hire who has built a Geneva trading room rather than merely worked in one: someone who can stand up sourcing, physical trading, logistics and customer development at the same time, and who is credible to trade-finance banks from the first conversation. The candidate profile combines banking and physical trading experience, prior responsibility for establishing an international trading platform in Geneva, and a working network across European industrial and energy counterparties. One candidate matching that profile has been identified and is available to discuss the mandate; the reference profile is held separately.
12Implementation
| Period | Milestone | Gate |
|---|---|---|
| M0 | Mandate and phase-one funding | This decision — the clock starts here |
| M+3 | Trading 213 SA incorporated; borrowing base opened | Critical path |
| M+6 | Control platform live; caps and restricted list loaded | Shareholder sign-off on caps |
| M+9 | Desk staffed; shadow allocation against real tenders | Shadow run without live authority |
| M+12 | First lifting on own account | Board release |
| M+15 | Paper and freight book switched to the Geneva desk | Phase two decision |
Timing is anchored to the mandate date. The timetable counts months from the actual decision, not calendar quarters; the information and document list is prepared before the switch begins.
Budgets are defined per phase. Phase 1 is deliberately narrow — validation and design, held within the agreed retainer. The more complex work — incorporation, platform build, transition — belongs to Phase 2; later phases carry an envelope now, with definitive numbers once the overall project and its timing are clear.
13Decisions required
- Approve the launch of Phase 1 — validation and design of the Geneva trading platform: commercial perimeter, operating model, corporate and governance structure, legal-tax-regulatory framework, banking and risk architecture, and the implementation roadmap.
- Approve the Phase 1 budget, tightly scoped to hold within the agreed retainer; incorporation, platform build and transition are Phase 2 work, released at the decision gate that closes Phase 1.
- Confirm where the sovereign hold sits — board, ministry, or a delegated oversight officer.
- Set the counterparty and ultimate-parent concentration caps for year one.
- Set the floor on non-dollar settlement for year one.
- Confirm whether the desk holds title from the first lifting or acts as agent through 2027.
Public figures in section 2 are drawn from published reporting on Algerian export volumes and the announced 2025–2029 capital programme, and should be re-verified against the producer's own accounts before circulation. All volumes, margins, headcounts and cost lines described as modelled are illustrative and must be replaced with internal data before this document goes beyond the readership listed above.