Swiss trading houses are muscling in on the global market for liquefied natural gas, until now the preserve of energy giants, and expect to grab a $10 billion share of the rapidly growing business this year. Trafigura [TRAFG.UL], Gunvor [GGL.UL], Vitol [VITOLV.UL] and Glencore are all shaking up a decades-old system dominated by Western oil majors and state energy producers which sell LNG directly to large consumers on long-term contracts. They plan 2017 shipments that will be more than triple the 2015 level, according to Reuters calculations based on figures for the four traders provided by trade sources. “The trade houses … are not fringe players any more,” said Trafigura’s head of LNG Hadi Hallouche. “In the next four or five years there will be a significant amount of supply contracts expiring and that will open up the market.” In the short term, the Swiss traders […]