Shell Houston Trading Internship

Hi fellow energy enthusiasts, I just turned down the BP IST internship offer for Shell's trading internship in Houston and I was wondering if I made the right decision?

Also, from what i heard, I am in Shell Energy North America (which deals with Energy and Power), and can anyone give me any input on natties? I am quite interested in LNG as I see it as an upcoming demand globally, and can anyone give me any input to this?

Thank you guys so much.

 

I'm going to preempt my statement by saying that I don't know much about Shell's trading operation; however, I think you made the wrong decision. BP's trade floor, despite what's in the media, is still legendary. BP has a healthy appetite for risk and aren't afraid to make large positions.

This being said, congrats on getting offers in both - the recruiting on-campus at my school was very competitive for BP IST.

 

Thank you Introspectivebanker. I know about BP's huge appetite, but the fact that the conversion rate from a TDP analyst to a full-fledged trader in BP was ~30%, and a TGP analyst to a full fledged trader in Shell was 8/10 (Official statistic from HR) made me choose Shell over BP. BP recruits heavily in midwest I believe, which is where i go to school, but past year interns and statistic just made me go towards Shell. Was wondering if there are any other opinions?

 
GoBlueWannaBeTrader:

Thank you Introspectivebanker. I know about BP's huge appetite, but the fact that the conversion rate from a TDP analyst to a full-fledged trader in BP was ~30%, and a TGP analyst to a full fledged trader in Shell was 8/10 (Official statistic from HR) made me choose Shell over BP. BP recruits heavily in midwest I believe, which is where i go to school, but past year interns and statistic just made me go towards Shell. Was wondering if there are any other opinions?

for BP, the tdp analyst to trader is about a 70% conversion rate..the 30% rate is for the traders test you have to take to become a jr trader..it is really low because anyone in the company can take the test with some manager sponsorship so a lot of people dont end up passing. also, i heard this past years TDP class had a fairly low pass rate,

 

If you want to make a career out of energy trading, you're going to be perfectly fine at Shell. You'll get trained up well and gain valuable experience. If you want to jump ship years down the line, you'll have a good shot at places like Vitol, Trafi, etc. If you want to stay at Shell and take an overseas assignment, the company is known to have a very generous expat package.

 

Funny enough, I was in the exact opposite situation. I got offered both shops for a internship this summer, and decided to take BP IST instead. The reason? It's actually pretty picky, but BP's north am gas and power floor is literally 10 minutes from where I live. There is no way in hell I'm bracing Houston traffic to get downtown...did that for my sophomore internship and hated every minute of it.

Anyways, I think you made a fine choice. BP and Shell are both great physical shops.. and as Intro mentioned, will prep you well for trading roles at vitol, glencore, trafi later down the road.

 

hahaha whhatt, thats so coincidental! Are u returning to BP for FT?? 2 of my friends from Michigan were there last year for IST in the crude and distillate desk. They did not receive an offer...which is also another reason why I did not take BP. No doubt BP is a great shop, huge volume and large risk appetite. Just hope I can pass Shell's test to qualify as a jr trader lol.

 
Best Response

Whenever someone pre-empt`s a response with they know very little about a marketplace and that XYZ is "legendary" I would be cautious.

There is probably about 5 top shops which have these graduate style programs and they are equally as good, just depends on the people you prefer and where you want to learn staff, BP/Chevron/Shell are probably 3 of those top with the longest known training programs all good places to learn.

LNG. Trading LNG is a lot different than trading natty or power, none of the North American gas groups at any of the major firms are directly dealing with LNG, they are dealing with pipeline/equity production side of things. The LNG projects are massive and alot more of it is on the optimization side of the world and less trading based on the size/style of the projects. My point being just cause LNG has a lot of future/demand, growth potential do not think it will be the most interesting or fun job out there, especially if you want to trade and not be a biz development guy.

TDP/TGP conversion. If you solely made your decision on the conversion rate of TDP/TGP, holy cow I am sorry for you folks. I am glad HR still sells this crap to people and even tries to calculate this bs, the truth is the TDP/TGP at these firms is actually more like 100%, the reason it is not 100% is due to external factors and not internal, these firms do not aim to over-hire like mad ala investment banks, these are lengthy programs from 1.5-3 years. You are going to have a rate of error when you hire someone day 1, and in 2.5 years later expect to be a good junior trader. At the same-time none of these programs guarantees you a job, some dude in ops could end up being the star 3-5 years into their career and push ahead of you, you are just given a head start to the marathon not a race way the physical trading world works.

Reality. As mentioned its not 2007/2008, so stop using the images of "legendary" in your mind. No one at all is prepping you for shit, especially not prepping you for Vitol/Glencore/Trafi not sure where this crap comes from still not one of those is even a great gas/power desk. Truth is the last 2-3 years have been tough environment for all firms, and a majority of the gas desks have struggled even at these "legendary firms", comp is not the best, life is not easy. It is still a great place to learn and gain skills for the future, and not like commodity traders are starving so still a oodt job if this is what you want, but do not walk in thinking its 2008 and everywhere is just raining green for commodities guys.

Var/Risk appetite. Natty/Power still require a ton of var/risk to be able to really make any return, sadly that is the nature of the business marketing margins have been compressed across most areas. So all the major firms/desks use a fair amount of var and take large positions. That said AGT Dec Basis has gone 4.50 to like 6.00 this week and today traded $7 to $11.75 high to settle at near $10, that is about 1.25mm impact for 1/day position roughly, so for sure some people today are puking or getting fired very likely, fun indeed. VAR could be a good or horrible thing just saying.

 

If it is your long term goal. Shells/BP for an internship will look great on a resume. Interned for both companies as a engineer, but know several people that interned for both firms trading divisions. The oil companies hire like crazy if your hard working.

We're running out of oil....sike!
 

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