ハビアー・ブラス（Javier Blas）は、エネルギーとコモディティー市場を専門とするジャーナリスト。フィナンシャル・タイムズで資源取引を取材し、同紙のコモディティーズ・エディターを務めた。ブルームバーグではエネルギー担当のチーフ記者を経て、エネルギー・資源分野のオピニオン・コラムを執筆。ジャック・ファーキーとともに、カザフスタン、コートジボワール、リビアなどで石油、食料、戦争を取材し、非公開性の高い資源商社の経営者へのインタビューや財務情報の報道に取り組んだ。二人の初の共著として2021年に刊行された『THE WORLD FOR SALE（ザ・ワールド・フォー・セール）――世界を動かすコモディティー・ビジネスの興亡』（原題 “The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources”）は、石油、金属、穀物を産地から世界市場へ動かす商社の事業と権力を追った。旧ソ連崩壊後の資源取引やリビア内戦時の取引を通じ、商社の利益追求が国家の資金調達や制裁、紛争と結びつく過程を描き、消費地と資源産出国をつなぐ企業が世界経済で果たしてきた役割を検証した。
Javier Blas is a journalist specializing in energy and commodity markets. He covered resource trading at the Financial Times, where he served as commodities editor, and later became Bloomberg’s chief energy correspondent before writing opinion columns on energy and commodities. Together with Jack Farchy, he reported on oil, food, and war in countries including Kazakhstan, Ivory Coast, and Libya. Their reporting involved interviews with executives of highly private trading houses and disclosure of companies’ financial accounts. Their first book, The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources, was published in 2021 and appeared in Japanese translation in 2022. It investigated the businesses and influence of merchants that move oil, metals, and grain from producing countries to global markets. Through episodes involving post-Soviet resource trading and transactions during the Libyan civil war, the authors traced the connections between commercial profit, state financing, sanctions, and armed conflict. The book examined how these companies connected resource-producing countries with consumers and financial centres, and the political power they acquired in the process.
