Energy Risk magazine recently named JP Morgan its Derivatives House of the Year, saying that the firm was a “colossus in the global commodity derivatives market,” and adding that “the bank continues to make rivals jealous,” despite tighter regulations and decreased hedging activity in some corners of the market.
To go along with that recognition, the magazine also awarded JP Morgan its Oil & Products House of the Year prize, singling out its role in keeping a Philadelphia refinery complex open, producing oil products and keeping 850 employees at work. The magazine called it one of the largest deals ever transacted. As part of the transaction, JP Morgan is supplying the refinery with crude oil and will acquire the products produced for the next three years.
The complexity of the oil refinery deal, Energy Risk said, “underscores the varied strengths of JP Morgan’s oil team and is a key reason why the bank wins this year’s Oil and Products House of the Year award.”
In giving the Derivatives House award, Energy Risk identified the long-term natural gas hedge the firm did for a Houston, Texas-based energy company. The company is in the process of building a Louisiana facility that would make it the first to be able to export liquefied natural gas from the contiguous United States. JP Morgan participated in raising the financing, acting as joint lead arranger and co-bookrunner. “But the bank also brought something else to the table,” Energy Risk said, “a large and complex hedge for the gas required by the terminal for export.»