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Three BP fuel oil traders in U.S., 1 in London quit. 1:51pm BST. By Yam Yam. SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Resignations from BP Plc's fuel oil team extended globally with the departure over the past month of three traders from its U.S. office, including the team leader, and the head trader in London, three industry sources said on Monday. These take the total number of departures from the unit to 14 worldwide, after Reuters reported that five fuel oil traders in Singapore and four support staff quit last Wednesday, following the resignation of global fuel oil head Quek Chin Thean a week before that. When contacted, a BP spokeswoman in Singapore declined to comment. The reason for the resignations was not immediately clear. The fuel oil traders in the United States and London resigned over the past three to four weeks, the sources said. "Most of BP's fuel oil team, including the global head and the heads of the three trading centres, have left in the past month," a U.S.-based source said. BP has been a major player over the past 15 years in the fuel oil market. In Asia, it regularly trades 500,000-600,000 tonnes of physical cargoes monthly. The departures in the U.S. of fuel oil leader, Tim Gawne, another physical trader and the third who traded derivatives, left the team with one derivatives trader, the sources said. Its European fuel oil team head, Chris Paine, left about a month ago to join European trading house Vitol, but the six other traders remain on the desk. Paine, who has been its London-based team leader for about two years, was BP's youngest book leader when he was appointed to the position at the age of 28, sources said. The void left by the departures of key traders globally, including Asia team leader Edmund Lau, has removed crucial support for the fundamentally weak Asian fuel oil market, where BP had been engaged in a bull trading play for the past two months for the May and June contracts, traders said. In the immediate aftermath of the resignations of its Asia fuel oil team, BP's marine fuels division in Singapore has not offered spot ex-wharf bunkers on Wednesday and Thursday. But it has since resumed offers of bunkers on Monday, traders said. The fuel oil market remained weak by Monday's close, with traders attributing this to the recovery of crude oil prices after a recent slide and a lack of confidence in the residual fuel market, which has been saddled with supplies for five months up till July. Reflecting the weakness, fuel oil's June crack spread to Dubai crude was valued at a discount of $6.70 a barrel by the close, down 25 cents from a day ago and the lowest since May 6. The weakness in its timespreads extended further down the 12-month forward curve, with June/July to January/February at a contango of $3.00 a tonne or weaker for a third session. Before the resignations, BP bought large volumes of 180-centistoke (cst) grade fuel oil for the June contract for a two-week period, amid sliding global crude oil benchmarks. The major picked up at least 30,000-40,000 tonnes daily, in what traders say is a bull-trading play on the product's crack spreads to Dubai crude, and bought as much as 100,000-150,000 tonnes on some days, Reuters data show. BP has combined storage capacity of about 600,000 cubic metres in the Universal and Tankstore oil terminals in Singapore and for the past three years has been the top supplier of marine fuels in the city state, the world's top bunker port by volume, with 400,000-500,000 tonnes a month.

Köhler shocks Germany and resigns. Published: May 31 2010 17:08 | Last updated: May 31 2010 17:08. German president Horst Köhler shook Berlin’s political establishment on Monday after resigning over contentious remarks he made about the country’s military presence in Afghanistan protecting Germany’s commercial interests. The departure of the – largely ceremonial – head of state could create a problem for chancellor Angela Merkel, as any successor will need the backing of her fractious coalition of Christian Democrats and the Free Democrat party. In order to make time for what is likely to a tricky search for Mr Köhler’s replacement, Ms Merkel quickly cancelled a visit to the northern Italian training camp of the German World Cup football squad. Mr Köhler, once head of the International Monetary Fund, said he was resigning because “unfounded” criticism of his remarks about the need for a German military presence overseas “undermines the necessary respect for my office”. He had come under unusually blunt attack from opposition politicians after giving an interview in which he said “stopping regional instabilities” was vital for “free trade routes” and for securing “jobs and income through trade”. Public unease about his remarks shows how deeply rooted pacifism has become in Germany 65 years after the end of the second world war. But it also shows the level of disillusionment with a president who never found his role. Representatives from Germany’s federal parliament and the 16 regional chambers elected Mr Köhler, a conservative, for a first five-year term in 2004, and voted him into a second term only last year. Ms Merkel’s success in placing Mr Köhler in Germany’s highest office six years ago was a harbinger of the political change that followed a year later, when she succeeded the Social Democrat Gerhard Schröder as chancellor. The nomination of a successor will face similar scrutiny. Ms Merkel faces the task of trying to forge a majority involving the current ruling parties or siding with the largest policital party, the Social Democrats, with the political symbolism this would bring with it. Mr Köhler lacked the warmth of some of his predecessors and failed to find a subject with which he was identified – unlike Roman Herzog, say, who told the country in the mid-90s that a self-satisfied Germany needed a “jolt”. A string of staff defections over the past months suggested not all was going smoothly in Mr Köhler’s office, but not even his critics expected the German president to resign – an unprecedented step in modern German history. In an attempt to claw back some positive headlines, Mr Köhler last week made a surprise visit to German soldiers in Afghanistan. It was on this trip that what he terms the “misunderstanding” about military operations took place.