Commercial Analyst – Processing & Trading Operations

Role overview

This position is based in Accra, Ghana, with periodic travel to Dubai, UAE. The role reports to the VP Commercial & Head of Trading, with a dotted-line reporting relationship to the Head of the Ghana Office.

The company is looking for a driven, inquisitive, and commercially aware professional who wants to build deep knowledge of the physical oil and refining sector. The ideal person is comfortable collaborating across departments, handling large volumes of data, and taking responsibility for outcomes.

This opportunity provides exposure to physical trading, refinery operations, risk management, commercial improvement, and senior-level decision-making within a growing international energy business.

Position summary

The selected candidate will be a highly analytical professional with 5 to 10 years of experience, supporting oil refinery processing and commercial activities in Ghana.

They will serve as the main coordination link across all teams involved in the company’s refinery processing agreement, helping ensure that information moves accurately and on time between Trading, Technical, Operations, Risk, Finance, and Sales.

The role requires continuous oversight of the crude-to-products chain, with responsibility for making sure important information is captured correctly, analysed thoroughly, and reported clearly. A proactive approach, strong commercial thinking, and the ability to spot risks, inefficiencies, and improvement opportunities before they affect results are essential.

Responsibilities

Commercial coordination, analysis and reporting are the core of this role, along with support for risk, exposure, financial reporting, and process improvement.

Additional information

Travel to Dubai, UAE may be required on a periodic basis. The role involves working across multiple internal functions and supporting senior management with accurate commercial insight and reporting.

Qualifications & experience

A bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, or a closely related field is required. The role calls for 5 to 10 years of relevant experience, ideally with exposure to oil trading, refining, logistics, commodities, or energy markets.

Applicants should bring strong numerical and analytical capability, advanced Excel knowledge, and, preferably, experience with Power BI or similar reporting tools. High attention to detail, strong communication, good organization, and the ability to manage several stakeholders at once are important for success.

Key responsibilities

• Coordinate day-to-day activity across all functions involved in the refinery processing agreement.
• Keep communication flowing accurately and promptly between Trading, Technical, Operations, Risk, Finance, and Sales teams.
• Track movement through the value chain and flag delays, bottlenecks, or issues that could affect performance or profitability.
• Review refinery performance, product yields, inventories, sales commitments, and operational datasets.
• Detect patterns, irregularities, and opportunities to improve commercial outcomes, then escalate them to management and commercial teams.
• Question assumptions, investigate data mismatches, and help ensure decisions are made using reliable information.
• Support analysis of crude selection, refinery economics, blending options, and overall deal profitability.
• Maintain accurate operational and commercial data in company systems.
• Prepare daily, weekly, monthly, and ad hoc reports and dashboards covering crude processing, inventories, yields, exposures, sales commitments, and profitability.
• Work with internal and external service providers to strengthen reporting and business intelligence capabilities.
• Maintain the operational and commercial inputs used for exposure, inventory, and hedge reporting.
• Partner with the Risk Management team to ensure positions, projections, and exposures are properly reflected in company systems.
• Support forecasting for forward inventory, production, and sales.
• Maintain the data underlying cash flow, FX exposure, and P&L reporting.
• Ensure management reporting reflects the business’s latest operational and commercial position.
• Look for ways to improve processes, controls, reporting, and information flow across the organization.
• Help implement new systems, analytical tools, and operational workflows.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline.
• 5 to 10 years of relevant work experience.
• Exposure to oil trading, refining, logistics, commodities, or energy markets is preferred.
• Strong analytical and numerical ability.
• Advanced Excel skills; Power BI or comparable reporting tools are a plus.
• Careful attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong organizational skills.
• Comfort working across departments and handling large volumes of information.

Candidate profile

The right candidate is energetic, curious, commercially minded, and eager to learn the physical oil and refining business. They should be comfortable working across functions and taking ownership of their work.

Who can apply

Professionals with 5 to 10 years of relevant experience and a background in business, finance, engineering, computer science, or a related area, especially those with exposure to trading, refining, logistics, commodities, or energy markets.

Perks

This role offers exposure to physical trading, refinery operations, risk management, commercial optimization, and senior management decision-making within a growing international energy business.