Citigroup Houston Head of Oil Trading Leaves for Noble

Citigroup Inc's director of oil trading in Houston has left to join commodities trader Noble Group Ltd (NOBGF.PK), a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Michael Paradise is set to begin trading crude oil for Noble in July, although it was not immediately clear what his new title would be.

Paradise has been at the Wall Street bank's trading desk for the last four years, having previous stints at Constellation Energy, Duke Energy (DUK), BNP Paribas and Enron, according to his LinkedIn (LNKD) profile.

Singapore-based Rob Biro, Citigroup's global head of oil trading, resigned in March.

Citigroup is trying to increase its commodities footprint, with plans to move into trading physical Canadian crude oil after a number of Wall Street banks have backed off from the physical commodity business.

Noble Group did not immediately respond to requests to comment. The story was first reported by SparkSpread.com

Last year, JPMorgan Chase & Co's head of global oil trading, Jeff Frase, was said to have left the bank to run Noble's oil business.

(Reporting by Catherine Ngai; Editing by David Gregorio)