The Geneva-based group, which reported record profits for 2021 partly aided by the recovery from COVID-19, said its trading operations in the first quarter remained supported by tight conditions in the physical market and “periods of extreme volatility.”

“Forecasting our first quarter performance over 12 months would yield our marketing division’s full-year earnings comfortably above the upper end of our long-term adjusted EBIT guidance range of $2.2 billion - $3.2 billion,” Glencore said in a Q1 corporate update.

In February, Glencore laid out total adjusted trading earnings of $3.69 billion for the year, an 11% increase on 2020, aided by a 50% surge in metal trade earnings underpinned by sharply higher volumes of alumina/aluminum and nickel, essential for electric mobility and batteries. But its oil trading volumes could not compare to those of 2020, when Glencore, along with other independent traders, took advantage of the extreme movements and dislocations in prices of crude oil, refined products, storage, and logistics.

The S&P GSCI commodity price index has jumped more than 33% so far this year as the Ukraine war disrupts crucial commodity markets and the global supply chains are already strained as the world recovers from COVID-19 lockdowns.

Glencore's gas and oil production in Q1 2022 increased by 40% from levels reported a year ago to 1.5 million boe, reflecting a ramp-up of gas production from the Alen natural gas project off Equatorial Guinea that began in March 2021.