A firsthand account of international petroleum product brokering—emanating from the underbelly of fraudulent daisy chains to the completion of a multimillion-dollar physical cargo transaction.
First introduced in 1994, this widely respected work draws on the firsthand experience of Richard A. Fagnani, a then relative newcomer to the industry. It offers a rare, unvarnished perspective on the opaque world of global oil trading. The narrative traces his transition, alongside his partner, from the seductive illusions of “play brokers”—with their fictitious Saudi allocations, JP1A jet fuel offers, and ritualistic fake oil activity demands for ICPOs, RWAs, FCOs, and bank-to-bank verifications—to substantive engagement with legitimate market participants, guided by a veteran oil trader with over four decades of experience.
Past editions of A Petroleum Broker’s Notebook have been purchased by a diverse spectrum of industry professionals, including complete novices, international admiralty law firms, and major multinational energy corporations. Notable organizations that have acquired this text include:
A Petroleum Broker’s offers timelessly rare, street-smart clarity that pays dividends in knowledge and caution.
Revised and expanded with two additional chapters on upstream oil that chronicles the E&P asset marketing sector, this edition preserves the book’s core strength: a pragmatic, anecdote-rich exploration of supply-demand realities, market psychology, and the perennial tension between opportunism and due diligence.
