This is really important message to the people who want to enter the physical oil trading business…
What do you do when you receive an offer of large amounts of JP-54 and D2 requiring an ICPO with BCL or Soft Probe, NCND and IMFPA up front?
This is pure Broker rubbish – throw it in your rubbish bin. It simply does not exist”.
I know that brokers don’t like to hear it, but I have to tell you that you are filling up peoples’ email systems with nonsense from other clueless brokers and it is spoiling your name. Maybe you are getting these so-called “deals” from good people, but perhaps they are getting them from another Broker “Daisy-chain”.
Please listen to good advice – instead of sending 100 emails with Broker nonsense which does not work, find just one…… only one….. Good deal where you are talking directly to the Seller (legal owner of the product) or his Mandate and you will save yourself (and all of us) a lot of unnecessary work.
Let me give you (for free) some good advice, coming from years and years of experience in this business: (It cost me a lot of money and years of hard work with no successful deals to gain this experience, but I am giving it to you for free, so this is your lucky day to get something valuable for free!!).
1. When a deal starts off with “send ICPO with BCL or Soft Probe, NCND and IMFPA” this is “Broker Language”. Those that know this “Broker-Language” know that this means: It means “I am a pathetic Broker – I don’t have any product for sale and I don’t know anyone who has got any (real) product for sale – so I want you to give me an Irrevocable Purchase Order with your full financial details disclosed, so that I can then run around with your order and your money in my hands, looking for product and the next thing you will be seeing is your company details and your banking details exposed to the world, running around on the internet between thousands of other Brokers”.
I suggest you “learn the business” and please do not send me EVEN ONE “deal” which starts off with this procedure – please just put them straight into the rubbish bin – which is exactly the place that I will put them when someone sends them to me.
2. Next valuable tip: Question: ‘What do the real buyers want?’ – Answer: Real buyers want to receive offers ONLY from real sellers.
So … ‘How do I recognize a “real seller” from one who is not?
A ‘real seller’ actually owns the product – he is the legal title holder of the product and 98% of the time he is not offering this product to the “Daisy Chain of Brokers” for sale. So you need to be sure of the circumstances as to why a “real seller” is offering “real product” for sale to a broker network when he can just call up Shell Oil or ExxonMobil or BP or Total Oil and sell it direct to them as they are always needing product.
So “What did I learn from this so far?”
“I learned that I will not receive “real” offers from a Broker Daisy-Chain. I will only receive them from a real seller or his real appointed Mandate”.
3. Next valuable tip: NOBODY gives oil products away for nothing. About 95% of deals which have a low fixed price are “scams” and there is no product available. They are the fabrications of the Daisy Chain of Brokers brigade. A real seller will in 95% of all cases only sell with a discount off a Platt’s based price. Sellers are not that stupid!!)
4. The remaining 5% of deals which sell for a fixed price are mostly “Spot” deals and they have a time window of a maximum of about 3 days. Within this time, they are normally sold and delivered because nobody can afford the tank storage space costs for any extra days – it eats up all the profit. Unfortunately the Daisy Chain of Brokers brigade pick up on some of these deals and continue to offer them all around the world for months and months after they have already been sold. The Brokers will swear to you that the deals are genuine, as they may have been at the time, but what use is a so-called “genuine” deal when it was already sold and delivered two months ago?
5. A “real buyer” who has money in his bank to buy product with, wants ONLY to receive offers from a REAL seller who: (a) actually owns the product (b) the product is already ‘in tank’ at the delivery port with tank receipts issued, or (c) the product is in the pipeline on the way to the port, or (d) the seller has bought crude oil which is on the way to the refinery and the product he wants to sell will be available in 30 to 45 days at the loading port, and (e) the Seller has some kind of documentary proof (Soft POP) that the product is real and available.
This “REAL SELLER” will always be prepared to offer product to a genuine buyer on an FCO and he will always be in a position to give some sort of partial POP (proof of product) in exchange for POF (proof of funds) and he will normally be ready to do this bank-to-bank.
What does this mean?
It means that you should ask your so-called “seller” if he can produce (bank-to-bank if he likes) some sort of evidence to a buyer/buyer’s bank to prove that the product is real, owned and available for sale. If the seller cannot do this, you need to find out why, because in most cases it will be found that he can’t produce this because he doesn’t have it, because the deal is a fake.
6. In any “real deal” there will never be a huge discount offered with huge commissions to intermediaries – it just doesn’t happen. So when you see a huge discount and/or huge commissions to intermediaries, it is more than likely that the deal is fake.
7. Please be aware that very often someone in the Broker fraternity hears about a deal which, at the time, may be genuine. This deal is then widely circulated amongst brokers, even months after the product has been “sold and delivered”. This is called “chasing rainbows”.
8. Whenever you see JP54 offered in huge quantities, throw it in the bin. Remember that the largest airline in the world uses only 7.8 million barrels per month and that is “worldwide” at numerous different destinations!! Also remember that the largest airline in the world will not be buying from you – they have long term, long standing arrangements direct with producers. So do yourself a favor and put all “huge” JP54 offers where they belong – straight into the rubbish bin.
9. And while you are at it, do some research on the delivery ports. Whenever anyone is offering you more product than the available tank capacity in the delivery port, it is obviously a fake deal.
10. Take some good advice – treat every deal as a “fake deal” until it is proven to be genuine – you will be right in over 90% of the cases….. The large majority of deals (in fact, almost all of them) running around the broker world are either fake deals, or they might have been available for a 3-day window but are still circulating days, weeks and even months after the deal was closed and delivered.
11. Lastly – only deal with people who are either a genuine Seller Mandate (with official Mandate Appointment Letters from the Seller – and beware… there are many fakes!!!) or not more than one step away from such a genuine Seller Mandate. On everything else you will find out that you are wasting your valuable time….. And mine (which by the way, I am not going to allow to happen).
Hope this sets the record straight now that you are in the right path.
Looking forward to doing business with you and to continue being your resource for deals, capital, relationships and advice.
Your feedback as always is greatly appreciated.
Thanks much for your consideration
By : Ziad K Abdelnour
Ziad is also the author of the best selling book Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics (Wiley, 2011),
Mr. Ziad Abdelnour continues to be featured in hundreds of media channels and publications every year and is widely seen as one of the top business leaders by millions around the world.
He was also featured as one of the 500 Most Influential CEOs in the World.
