LONDON, March 17 (Reuters) - Azeri state-owned oil company SOCAR has hired staff from Phibro, the trading operation that Occidental Petroleum is winding down, to expand its London-based team, it said on Tuesday.
SOCAR Trading has recruited all Phibro's London team, who include several traders and operations staff. Its operations will focus initially on trading of crude oil but could expand to oil products, a spokesman said.
"Following Occidental Petroleum's announcement in late 2014 of its intention to pull back from proprietary trading of crude oil, SOCAR Trading took the opportunity to recruit Phibro's London trading team and increase significantly its presence in the London oil market," Socar Trading said in a statement.
SOCAR Trading is headquartered in Geneva with offices in Singapore and Dubai.
The company last year hired several top traders from Trafigura and Arcadia as part of the expansion of its London operations.
Phibro has been winding down operations in the United States and elsewhere since last year.
(Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)