By Julia Payne
LONDON (Reuters) - The world's largest independent oil trading house Vitol is hiring Mike Muller, the former head of crude oil trading at Royal Dutch Shell (L:RDSa) and once one of Vitol's biggest rivals, a source familiar with the matter said.
Muller left Shell in November after 29 years at the company and will be joining Vitol's business development division to find new oil supplies and buyers.
Over the past decade Vitol has grown into the world's largest independent trader, handling as much as 7 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and products, equivalent to 7 percent of global supply.
Vitol is seen as one of the largest crude traders in the North Sea, which sets the Brent global benchmark that helps to price half of the world's crude oil.
Shell is also a very large player in Brent and handles more than 10 percent of global oil and products overall.
A Vitol spokeswoman declined to comment. Muller could not be reached for comment.
Muller expanded trading aggressively at Shell, handling as much as 8 million bpd of crude. He was replaced by Mark Quartermain after a reshuffle of Shell's downstream and trading divisions.