By Maryelle Demongeot

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Former Lehman Brothers trader Cyril Youinou has joined Standard Chartered in Singapore as head of its oil trading desk, StanChart said on Monday, as the bank prepares to expand its Asian energy trading operations.

As director energy derivatives, Youinou will head a team of three traders, which will initially trade crude and oil product derivatives, but would eventually move into physical trading, an industry source said.

StanChart's expansion plan comes as other banks have been closing or relocating part of their trading desks, after taking a beating from the U.S. subprime crisis.

Energy trading has also become more difficult due to heightened price volatility after oil prices surged 45 percent between January and mid-July to records near $150 a barrel, before sliding to around $115 recently.

But StanChart, whose business is Asia-focused, has shown resilience.

The bank beat analysts' forecasts with a 31 percent jump in first-half profit, as Asian economic growth continued to outpace western economies. Its wholesale banking arm grew strongly, with pretax profit for the six months to end-June reaching $2.59 billion.

Frenchman Youinou, 31, started his career in Singapore with Societe Generale before joining J.Aron, the energy and commodities arm of U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs

He later moved to Lehman, first in Tokyo and then Singapore when the U.S. investment bank opened its trading office here.