So when oil is $25 a barrel, Mr. Caldwell says, he may receive about $22 from the local oil broker, whose tanker trucks haul it away.

An oil broker in Purchase, operating in international markets, estimates he travels 66,000 miles a year in airplanes.

The unit, headed by Wayne Black, determined that its primary target was Charles Hamel, a former independent oil broker from Virginia.

Ulf Hjertström, an oil broker, was taken hostage on March 25, 2005.

He became an oil broker and entrepreneur, buying and selling oil leases, and started a real estate business.

In the early 1930s, he partnered with Jake Simmons, Jr., another wealthy African-American oil broker.

Industry analysts said the Bazhayev company was an oil broker, buying and reselling petroleum shipments, and an adviser to other oil companies undergoing restructuring.

And that comes on top of the normal trading long conducted by oil companies, commercial oil brokers or funds held by investment banks.

Mr. Furmark, an oil broker, did not return messages left at his Manhattan office.

Najeeb Elias Halaby Sr. worked as an importer and later an oil broker.