The past 18 months have witnessed the retreat of US and European banks once seen as major providers of energy risk management products. That has created a window of opportunity for non-bank firms to take their place.

GDF Suez Trading, the trading arm of Paris-based multinational utility GDF Suez, has firmly seized that opportunity, expanding into new markets and increasing its number of counterparties by 30% in 2013. Many of those counterparties are in sectors that have traditionally relied on