The world's biggest oil trader, Vitol, has entered into an agreement to purchase the largest and most modern power plants in Britain. The purchase would be made from Philips 66 and the move is a strategy for the firm to invest in actual physical assets for business.

The Immingham combined heat and power plant can produce 1,220 megawatts and has been in operation since 2004. It supplies nearly 2% of the Britain's electricity requirements as well as steam to two other refineries, namely Total's Lindsey and Phillips 66's Humber.

Vitol has been undertaking a strategy of acquiring assets in the different stages of the energy supply chain to increase profits, a strategy undertaken by other oil trading firms.

According to Ian Taylor, President and CEO of Vitol, "Immingham is a high quality power plant with a highly skilled and experienced workforce." Vitol is based out of Switzerland and trades electricity in many European markets such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg.