Volatile oil a drag on govt coffers

Nickel, iron ore and oil all dropped, and shares of resources companies slipped in Asia.

THE first three months of the year have been the best quarter for oil traders in recent years. Vitol, which is the largest independent energy trader in the world with 350 partners spread across the globe, made a clean profit of US$600mil (RM2.48bil) in the first quarter from the trading of oil.However, repeating the feat would be difficult.

Even the most seasoned of oil traders feel that oil would be volatile in the next few months and predicting the direction of the market is rather complicated.