[Financial News] Central banks and Oil Trader 中央銀行與石油交易商

Source Language: Central banks are by definition lenders of last resort. At first blush, oil traders appear optimistic in asking for help from this source. The health of globe-trotting, private sector businesses such as Vitol and Glencore is not generally seen as crucial to financial stability.

But these are exceptional times. Up to a tenth of world oil is out of circulation due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Energy prices are spiralling. Margin calls are hurting. Hedges may exceed the cost of the physical cargos they are designed to protect.

Gas futures linked to Dutch TTF, Europe’s wholesale gas price, are up as much as six-fold. Initial margins — once just a few percentage points of the underlying instrument — have spiralled as high as 80 per cent, traders say.

One trader, used to margin calls or reductions of €50mn during normal volatility, is now looking at ten times that within a single day. Nervy clearing house members are applying additional multipliers.

Target language:

從定義上來看，中央銀行是最後貸款人。乍眼一看，石油交易商對向中央銀行借貸保持樂觀態度，但像Vitol和Glencore等業務遍佈全球的私人企業的財政健康對全球金融穩定卻沒那麼重要。

但現在是特殊時期。由於俄羅斯入侵烏克蘭，高達百分之十的全球石油不再在市場上流通。能源價格急遽上升，追繳保證金 are hurting，對衝工具更可能超出可保障的實體貨物成本。

天然氣的未來價格與歐洲天然氣批發價「荷蘭天然氣交易中心」掛鉤，並已經上漲超過六倍。有交易員表示，初始保證金原先只是相關工具(資產)的幾個百分點，但如今則急升至百分之80。

在交易價格波動正常期間，交易員所繳的保證金上下浮動金額為歐元5000萬，但如今的單日追加保證金可能此數目是十倍之多。較為謹慎的清算中心人員更正使用額外的乘數。