Glencore Suspended Price Risk Limits as War Upended Oil Markets

(Bloomberg) — Glencore Plc sought waivers from its board in the early days of the US war on Iran to allow its traders to take more risk.

The firm’s trading business had one of its most profitable ever periods in the first half of the year after the war sent energy prices soaring. The unit made about $3.3 billion in the period, more than all of 2025, and trailing only the first six months of 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked a global energy crisis.

The Iran war upended global energy markets when it effectively closed the vital Strait of Hormuz at the end of February, shutting vast quantities of crude and products inside the Persian Gulf.

To capitalize on that volatility, Glencore had to seek waivers in March from its board to temporarily exceed the limits on its so called value at risk — a measure of how much the company could lose on a normal trading day.

Glencore, which usually has a VaR limit of $200 million, saw that measure more than double to a peak of $456 million. Still, as some of the initial war-driven volatility cooled, that risk returned to more normal levels and the waiver was withdrawn in late May.

The trading house said Wednesday that the increase in VaR mainly reflected increased market volatility, rather than a change in the company’s risk appetite.

Glencore’s Chief Financial Officer Steven Kalmin said the company was risk averse when it came to betting on the direction of oil price moves. “Positionally, it was very conservative,” he said.

Glencore said its VaR was $48 million at the end of June.

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