BNP Paribas is one of a number of banks that have been making hay as others retreat from commodities in the face of declining revenues, tougher regulation and harsher capital requirements. While other banks have withdrawn from natural gas markets, the French bank has remained firmly involved, and says it has benefited as a consequence.

"If you take [any] given counterpart, in 2010 they may have been doing two trades with us," says Christoph Bilshausen, London-based director of European gas and