Trading house Mercuria to hire ex Shell LNG head Steve Hill

(Reuters) - Energy trader Mercuria will hire prominent gas trader Steve Hill, formerly head of LNG at Shell, as the trading house expands its presence in liquefied natural gas (LNG), three sources said.

Hill, who at Shell oversaw the world's largest LNG trading business, joins Geneva-based Mercuria as owners Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi look to acquire talent to build on two years of bumper profits. In 2022, Mercuria made a record $3 billion.

LNG proved to be a boon for commodity traders with large books over the last two years. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Europe's already tight gas market became even tighter with the loss of most Russian pipeline gas deliveries, which sent prices soaring.

Mercuria has lagged its rivals - Trafigura, Gunvor and Vitol - on LNG and only opened a desk in 2019. Mercuria has not published its LNG traded volumes.

A spokesperson declined to comment. The sources declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly.

Mercuria also hired banker Nick O'Kane from Macquarie. He is due to start later this year.

(Reporting by Aizhu Chen in Singapore, Julia Payne in Brussels, and Dmitry Zhdannikov in London; additional reporting by Deep Vakil in Bengaluru; editing by Barbara Lewis and Sharon Singleton)