The new desk will be part of the company’s P&P Oil team and will broker physical middle distillates with the goal of optimising European and Transatlantic distillate flows. It will be led by Matt Arrowsmith and supported by Paul Witcomb, who have a combined nearly 40 years of industry and trading experience, and will work with oil majors, trading houses and other market participants.

“I am excited about taking on the challenge of building a broking business from scratch,” said Arrowsmith. “OTC Europe’s impressive track record of building thriving physical commodity broking teams, combined with its in-house futures, derivatives and operations teams, provides an unrivalled environment for client success and business growth.”

Prior to joining OTC Europe, Arrowsmith was a physical distillates broker with Jackson Son & Co. He also held trading and leadership positions with Itochu and PetroIneos, respectively. Witcomb most recently spent three years at Jackson Son & Co. where he was responsible for building up and growing the company’s activity in the Mediterranean region. Before this, he worked with Phillips Petroleum, Westport Petroleum and Itochu over a period of more than two decades.