Noble Group to Add Former BP Oil Analyst Giovanni Serio to Roster

Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — BP Plc’s head oil analyst for Asia, Giovanni Serio, plans to join Noble Group Ltd. in Singapore, four people with knowledge of the matter said.

Serio, 39, resigned at the end of last year and is scheduled to start at Noble in April, they said, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Serio will lead the global commodities research team at Noble, two of the people said. He previously worked for Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Mark Salt, a spokesman for BP in London, declined to comment on the matter when contacted by phone on Jan. 17. An official at Noble in Hong Kong said in a Jan. 18 e-mail that the company doesn’t comment on personnel matters. Noble is Asia’s biggest publicly listed commodity trader.

Serio, an Italian, was head of market analysis in Asia for BP’s integrated supply and trading division based in Singapore. He joined BP in London in a similar role after leaving Goldman Sachs in 2009.

BP fuel oil trader Koh Leong Teck left the company’s Singapore team this month, according to five people with knowledge of his departure. The company hired Steven Taylor from Macquarie Group Ltd. to head Asia crude trading in Singapore, two people with knowledge of the appointment said in September.

BP Chief Executive Officer Robert Dudley announced plans in November 2010 to trim the company’s trading operations by cutting management to reduce risk and lower costs as it sought to conserve cash to help pay for damages linked to an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that year. BP reports fourth-quarter and full-year earnings on Feb. 5.

– Anthony DiPaola, Copyright 2013 Bloomberg.

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