UPDATE 2-Statoil shuts Asia product trade arm, no jobs cut

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By Jennifer Tan

SINGAPORE, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Norway's StatoilHydro ASA (STL.OL) said on Friday it was scaling down third-party oil product trading and would close its Singapore products department, confirming a Reuters report a day earlier.

The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression has crippled liquidity in commodities and energy markets and the subsequent plunge in trading volumes has forced many brokers and traders to hunt for new revenue streams or wind down operations.

"The scale-down will affect our third-party product trading in Singapore. The products department with its four employees will be discontinued," Statoil said in a statement on its website.

The decision will not affect any of its trading activities in crude or gas liquids, its key trading activities, in addition to natural gas, the company added.

"We are focusing our product trading around Europe. There will be no job cuts. The plan is to reassign the affected staff in Singapore," a Statoil spokeswoman told Reuters.

The Norwegian oil and gas group trades middle distillates and fuel oil in the Singapore oil trading hub, but their activity in the region centres more on crude.

"They were never big in products here in the first place. Crude is bigger," said a Singapore-based trader.  Continued...