By Dmitry Zhdannikov
LONDON (Reuters) - Trading house Trafigura has promoted its two co-heads of risk, Ben Luckock and Robert Gillon, to become co-heads of oil, trading sources said, in a gradual transition of power from veteran oil chief, Jose Larocca.
Trafigura has been reshuffling its management in recent months, bolstering the position of Chief Executive Jeremy Weir, while also giving more responsibility to the next generation of potential leaders.
Larocca, a Trafigura veteran and among the closest allies of the late founder Claude Dauphin, had previously been the only head of the oil division.
Larocca will remain an executive director at Trafigura and will oversee the oil division while helping Luckock and Gillon assume their "leadership responsibilities", the sources told Reuters.
Luckock and Gillon will manage daily activities including all speculative trading, the sources said.
Luckock has expressed bullish views on oil prices over the past year.
He was among the first traders to predict a spike in prices last year, saying that the market would see a supply crunch amid soaring global demand and output disruptions around the world.
In March, Luckock said that even though U.S. shale output was set to expand at a fast pace, growth was slowing down and was not enough to cover unexpectedly strong global oil consumption.