Ian Taylor, the trader who helped shape the modern oil market by transforming a small Dutch fuel merchant called Vitol Group into one of the world’s biggest commodity houses, has died. “It is with great sadness that Vitol today announces the death of its Chairman and former CEO, Ian Taylor, from pneumonia, following a long battle with illness,” the company said in a statement. He was 64. An Oxford-educated Briton with Scottish family roots, Taylor joined Vitol from Royal Dutch Shell Plc in 1985 and took over as chief executive officer a decade later. Despite the occasional brush with scandal, Vitol grew at a rate few ... (full story)