Energy trader Vitol paid employees $6.4 billion in 2023 via share buybacks

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Global energy trader Vitol Group paid its employees $6.4 billion through share buybacks in 2023, company filings seen by Reuters showed, after several years of bumper profits.

The buybacks are the highest ever for the company and were paid out to about 450 employee shareholders. Vitol made a $13 billion net profit in 2023, down slightly from $15 billion the year before. The Geneva-based firm's profits soared into the double digits on the back of Europe's energy crisis and Russia's fullscale invasion of Ukraine.

Global energy and commodity prices became extremely volatile after the West imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian products while gas prices skyrocketed after Russia's Nord Stream pipeline was blown up.

(Reporting by Julia Payne; Editing by Leslie Adler)