LONDON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Glencore traded more oil last year but earned less from its energy trading business for the third year in a row, the commodity trader and mining group's annual earnings showed on Wednesday. 

"Energy and steelmaking coal continued to face a more subdued environment," the company said. "Well-supplied markets, geopolitical uncertainty and softer sentiment impacted performance."

Glencore reported slightly lower 2025 core earnings on Wednesday, and said it would return $2 billion to shareholders. Earlier this month, talks to create a global mining giant by merging with Rio Tinto failed to reach a deal.

MARKETING VOLUMES RISE 

Glencore traded 4.2 million barrels per day of crude oil, oil products and gas products last year, up 11% on the year and the highest since 2020, Reuters calculations based on the results showed. This was still some way off the 5.6 million bpd it traded in 2017.

Volumes have started to recover after a drop in 2020-2022 due to disruptions to Glencore's Russian business after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the demand destruction caused by COVID-19.

Last year was also marked by the U.S. Department of Justice ending its monitorship of Glencore's trading in March 2025, a year earlier than planned. The monitorships began after Glencore agreed to pay fines in 2022 as part of DOJ probes into bribery and market manipulation. 

The monitorship was a burden on Glencore and in 2024 alone cost incurred from it amounted to $85 million, according to Glencore's report that year.  

Despite trading larger volumes, Glencore's earnings before interest and taxes from energy and steelmaking coal trading fell for a third straight year, dropping 32% on the year to $614 million in 2025, and a big drop from a record high of $5.2 billion in 2022.

Glencore enjoyed a large rebound in the second half of last year, after first-half EBIT from energy marketing was just $40 million. The company said the well-supplied energy markets in the first half of 2025 led to significant reductions in average benchmark prices.

Last year was the final year of Alex Sanna's tenure as Glencore's head of oil, with former gas and power boss Maxim Kolupaev appointed to the role from the start of this year.

(Reporting by Robert Harvey and Dmitry Zhdannikov in London; editing by Barbara Lewis, Alexandra Hudson)

By Robert Harvey and Dmitry Zhdannikov