The world’s largest independent oil trader, Vitol Group, is considering potential acquisitions in the U.S. shale patch, chief executive Russell Hardy said on the Reuters Commodity Trading Summit on Tuesday.

“Nothing has been done, it’s just an area where we feel there might be a fit from an asset point of view, where capital is leaving and some assets are going to want new owners,” Hardy said at the summit.

If Vitol were to decide to proceed with an acquisition, it hopes that it could have deals lined up by this time next year, the executive added.

Earlier this year, Vitol said it had established Vencer Energy, LLC—an upstream venture in the United States, which will be looking to buy mature, producing oil and gas assets, with a specific focus on key basins in the US Lower 48. Houston-based Vencer Energy will be led by industry veteran Don Dotson as president and chief executive officer.

“I am looking forward to leveraging my decades of industry experience operating in multiple basins to build a large-scale oil and gas enterprise,” Dotson said in a statement in July.

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Source: Oil Price