看不见的手：世界最大独立石油公司解密

    维多（Vitol）在佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角修建了世界上最先进的转运仓库。这个仓库于2010年正式运转，负责供给附近的港口、奥兰多机场以及佛州中部地区的加油站

    伊恩•泰勒笑着走进房间。他是维多——这家你从未听说过的全球最大、也是最重要公司的负责人。他穿着考究的海军蓝西装，性格开朗而又不失谦虚，是位典型的英国高管。现年57岁的泰勒“地中海”两侧已经斑白，但他仍然洋溢着孩子般的热情。泰勒在牛津大学（Oxford）修过政治、哲学和经济学，所以他的口才自不必说。泰勒解释道，维多不过是一个“举足轻重”的行业中的一家企业。不过泰勒还是很乐意谈自己的生意。简言之，维多从一个地方收购原油，然后卖到另一个地方，从中获利。不过，实际过程要复杂得多。

    维多集团是世界最大的独立原油贸易公司，泰勒是首席执行官。维多是一家私营公司，根据这家公司提供的数据，2012年营收为3,030亿美元。从数据来看，维多是世界最大的私营公司，排在另两家大宗商品贸易公司嘉吉（Cargill）和科氏工业（Koch Industries）前面。如果它公开上市，将超过雪佛龙（Chevron）和丰田（Toyota），跃居2012年《财富》世界500强第7位。这类贸易公司的利润率非常低，不过维多的利润只需要与350位左右的股东分享。

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    译者：项航

    Vitol built this state-of-the-art storage terminal in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Open since 2010, it supplies the nearby port, the Orlando airport, and gas stations across central Florida.

    The man who runs the biggest, most important company you've never heard of bounds into the room with a grin. In his elegant navy suit, and with his cheerfully self-effacing personality, Ian Taylor is the very model of a British executive. The 57-year-old is bald on top and graying on the sides, yet he sparkles with boyish enthusiasm. It almost goes without saying that he's eloquent, having studied politics, philosophy, and economics at Oxford. His firm is just one player in a "whacking great" industry, he explains. But he's happy to discuss his business. Simply put: He buys oil in one place and sells it in another, hoping to make a profit. In reality, it's a bit more complicated than that.

    Taylor is CEO of the Vitol Group, the world's largest independent oil trader. According to results provided by the company, Vitol, which is a private partnership, racked up revenues of $303 billion in 2012. That would make Vitol the biggest private company in the world by sales, ahead of commodities industry peers such as Cargill and Koch Industries. If Vitol were publicly traded, its reported revenues would have ranked it No. 7 on last year's Fortune Global 500, ahead of Chevron and Toyota. Margins in the trading business are razor thin, but the company's profits are divvied up among just 350 or so shareholders.