Compensation of commodities trading firms compared to supermajor oil and gas companies
I was having a conversation with a friend about the compensation of an oil trader at a company like Vitol, Trafigura, Glencore etc. compared to one at a company like BP, Shell or P66, and assumed that the compensation was much greater at the trading firms. However after looking at glassdoor the salary figures were around the same for all of the above mentioned.
Of course I'd assume that the bonuses at trading firms are much greater, but I have no way of really confirming that. What exactly is the incentive to go from working at say BP to working at, say Vitol? I've heard the cultures are much different, with the trading firms being much faster paced, but is the salary after bonuses that much greater?
I will leave it to someone else who is more knowledgeable about the industry to discuss salary differential between Majors and Trading houses.
As for the incentive for working at Oil Major compared to Trading House is that Oil majors have HUGE asset base and therefore have a reliable and high quality information about the fundamental demand and supply of oil and gas and their corresponding derivatives. This information leads to consistently profitable trades and given the size of the majors, they can always issue highly competitive prices. That said, majors do differ in terms of their trading risk appetite, for example the european majors (chiefly BP and Shell) are far more risk tolerant than many american majors. So working in a Major's trading operation you will benefit for high quality information, huge asset base that offers greater optionality and therefore more trading opportunity and its a great platform to grow yourself as a commodity trader.
Incentives for working at a trading house includes higher risk tolerance, more nimble of an organisation than a Major and greater cut of PnL.