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By Catherine Ngai
NEW YORK, June 15 (Reuters) - Azeri state oil companySocar's trading division is looking to expand in North America,having opened an office in Calgary in recent months and eyeing asecond one in Houston, its chief executive told Reuters.
The company, which opened an office of some 15 staff inCalgary, is moving away from being just a state-owned marketingarm and is now trading local Canadian crude grades, natural gasand financial derivatives. It also holds some storage atCushing, Oklahoma.
The move into Calgary, which includes hiring formerPetroChina and BP Plc executive Gary Pon as its head oftrading, gives the company a chance to grow market share in abigger part of the opaque crude market while others scale back.
"It's difficult to expand when everyone is growing. In asituation when there are more opportunities left (as others havescaled back) and with current market volatility ... with higherrisk, the trading companies that can manage risk are steppingin," said Arzu Azimov, chief executive of Socar Trading.
"It was not the original intention, but people say we'removing towards becoming a merchant trading house."
Geneva-based Socar Trading was set up in 2007 as themarketing arm of Azerbaijan's national oil company, but hassince moved to trading third-party crude and products.
Last year, it hired former Phibro staff in London afterOccidental Petroleum wound down operations in 2014.
A 60-percent slump in global crude prices forced producersto slash thousands of jobs and millions in capital expenditures.In early 2015, Nexen Energy closed down its crude oil tradingdivision following a round of job cuts.
Socar's Calgary office, which includes four to five traders,adds to the company's global presence, as it already haslocations in Singapore, London, Geneva and Dubai.
"With our Houston office, the volumes will grow," he added,citing that he was open to opening an office in other cities.
Last month, Socar's Azerbaijani parent announced that it wasclosing several foreign offices - including those located inBelgium and Germany - to curb spending amid the oil slump. Azimov said the closures were part of a cost-savingprogram, but not related to its trading division. He said thatinstead, market volatility has helped the trading arm.
Azimov said he expects the market to reach around $60 abarrel by year end, though he does not exclude a drop to $40 inthe interim. (Reporting By Catherine Ngai; editing by David Gaffen and ChizuNomiyama)