Macquarie Hires Equinor’s Ravelli as Global Head of LNG Trading

(Bloomberg) -- Macquarie Group Ltd. has hired Samuele Ravelli to lead its global LNG trading business as the market for the super-chilled fuel booms.

Ravelli, Equinor ASA’s vice president for Asian LNG in Singapore, will join the Australian financial giant in November, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named discussing non-public information. 

Macquarie and Equinor declined to comment.

Global liquefied natural gas supplies are set to swell in the coming years as new export projects from the US and Qatar come online, with a number of banks contemplating getting back into physical trading of the commodity. The end of piped supplies from Russia into Europe has heightened the continent’s competition for cargoes with Asia, where demand for LNG is expected to rise.

Macquarie is one of the few banks still active in the global LNG market, after regulatory pressure forced financial institutions to pull back from the sector more than a decade ago. Its activity has been mainly tied to financing cargoes on the water or structuring transactions, rather than the aggressive and often risky profit-seeking moves pursued by commodity traders.

Ravelli’s appointment comes more than a year after Rajiv Panicker, an experienced LNG professional, departed from the post of managing director and head of LNG trading at Macquarie in London.

Ravelli was in charge of Asian LNG at Equinor’s Singapore office since January 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that, he worked for Origin Energy Ltd. and Uniper SE. 

In January, Macquarie also hired a gas trader for its Singapore office from Morgan Stanley, Pierre Crucifix, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

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