Pierre Andurand is one of the world’s most high-profile commodities traders, known for making big, conviction-driven bets — especially in oil.
The 49-year old from France is a legendary oil trader who worked at Goldman Sachs and Bank of America before starting BlueGold (in 2008) and Andurand Capital Management in 2013. His net worth is estimated from anywhere from $200m to $1 billion, likely at the upper end of that range.
He compounded his funds at around 27% since 2008 then but it’s been very volatile, including a harsh decline last year.
- 2013: +25%
- 2014: +38%
- 2016: +22%
- 2020: +154%
- 2021: +87%
- 2022: ~+50%
- 2023: −55%
- 2024: +50%
- 2025: −40%
Those numbers come from various media reports so add or subtract a bit. The fund was said to post a 6% gain in a single week this month on the war but he’s not sure who he’s trading against.
Here is an exchange on X, with Bloomberg oil reporter Javier Blas who said:
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the US government has NOT intervened in the oil derivatives market
Andurand replied simply with
Sure…
That’s a common sentiment and the volatility in the market is very high. Particularly notable was the mid-week drop in WTI to $77 from as high as $120. It since marched steadily higher before some moderate selling today.
The CME Group CEO warned the Treasury that intervening intervening in the oil futures market could cause a “biblical disaster” but Andurand and others don’t believe that’s dissuaded them.
What is clear is that nearly 20 million barrels per day of oil is missing from the market and in time, those will be physical barrels. You can picture the global supply chain as a pipeline and crude is at the start of that. Right now, the physical oil is still coming out the end of the pipeline but nothing is going in. The real test will be when that pipeline dries out.
Trump today was seemingly relaxed about it but he also said that no one in the Pentagon expected Iran to bomb its neighbours.
This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.
