Expansion
Gunvor has expanded beyond its Russian roots, and trades globally, including in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas with its main trading hubs located in Geneva, Singapore, Nassau and Dubai.[21] The group has also opened offices in Amsterdam, Moscow, Beijing and Nigeria. Gunvor has stated that it intends to develop its new energy trading division so that it will become a more significant part of a more diversified business.
In 2009, Gunvor established its Global Energy division,[22] focused on trading a broad range of energy commodities including Global Coal and Freight, Emissions and Renewables, Natural Gas and LNG and Power.
The company intends to continue to expand and diversify in 2010, both geographically and across the energy value chain. Marking a new phase in its expansion into the European energy markets, Gunvor entered its first trades in the natural gas, power and carbon markets in January 2010, and extending its trading capability across North West and Central Europe for physical natural gas and coal across the globe.[23]
In April 2010, the company hired traders who take responsibility for Gunvor's physical-gas positions across continental Europe, D. Smith for as a coal trader in 2010, and Fredrik Bodecke who will be responsible for the Nordic and Baltic electricity markets.[24]
In September 2023, it was announced that Gunvor would enter the metals trade again with the hiring of a veteran trader.[25] In December 2023, Gunvor acquired a 75% stake in a 785 megawatt power plant in Bilbao, Spain, from BP Gas Marketing Limited.[26] In August 2024, it was announced that TotalEnergies had sold a 50% stake in Total PARCO Pakistan Limited, an oil marketing firm, to Gunvor Group. It was a joint venture between Total Energies and Pak-Arab Refinery Limited in Pakistan, with a retail network of more than 800 service stations.[27]
In 2025, Gunvor made an offer to acquire Lukoil’s international assets, including oil refineries in Romania and Bulgaria, petrol stations in Europe and the United States, and oil and gas operations in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa. The proposed purchase came after U.S. sanctions were imposed on Lukoil and other Russian oil companies. In November 2025, Gunvor withdrew its bid after the U.S. Treasury announced that it would block the deal, describing the company as a “Kremlin’s puppet” and stating that no licence would be issued while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued. Gunvor rejected the allegations as “fundamentally misinformed and false,” emphasizing that it had sold its Russian assets more than a decade earlier and had publicly condemned the invasion.[28]
