FACTBOX: Investment banks in energy markets

(Reuters) - Investment banks are big players in the energy markets, where an oil price boom has increased demand from a whole range of companies for products that can offset the risks of volatile prices.

The banks also can trade on their own account, so-called proprietary trading, where they bet their own cash in the oil futures and over-the-counter markets.

Some also make investments in energy-related infrastructure assets, such as pipelines, transportation and storage facilities.

The top three players are Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Barclays Capital (BARC.L), the investment bank arm of UK bank Barclays Plc.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, once know as the "Wall Street refiners", have been active for two decades, Barclays Capital has built its business over the past 10 years.

Banks are increasingly active in the physical oil markets, where they say they need a presence to satisfy client needs and to gain access to information.

Both Morgan Stanley and Barclays Capital, for example, trade physical crude oil.

The futures markets where oil is traded include the New York Mercantile Exchange NMX.N, the world's biggest energy futures market, and ICE Futures Europe, owned by Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE.N).

Oil and other energy derivatives are also traded over-the-counter. These markets are estimated to be between 10-15 times bigger than the ICE and NYMEX.

Other banks have expanded in energy and commodities, but fallout from the credit crunch has forced some of the newer participants to cut back or pull out.

Lehman Brothers LEH.N has been expanding as well as Citi (C.N) and Deutsche Bank. French banks BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) and Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) have also have a presence.

Some of the banks' recent moves in energy and commodities are listed below.

* BANK OF AMERICA CORP (BAC.N) early this year shut its commodities and energy trading desk in London, becoming one of the first big investment banks to trim operations.

The U.S. bank said it would close its London commodities and trading desk and centralize operations in New York.

* BARCLAYS CAPITAL (BARC.L) - The investment bank arm of the UK banking group plans around a 30 percent increase in staff in its commodities business in the next two years.

The bank currently has around 250 staff in energy and other commodities, spanning oil and refined products, metals, power and gas, coal, agriculturals, emissions and investment products.