Asia Fuel Oil-Margins post weekly declines as supplies weigh

Asia’s refining margins for fuel oil fell week-on-week as ample incoming supplies weighed on the market.

October crack spread for 0.5% very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) fell by nearly 5% from last week, closing at a premium of $8.52 a barrel at Friday’s Asia close.

Meanwhile, the crack for 380-cst HSFO closed at a discount of $12.15 a barrel, posting weekly declines of more than 10%, LSEG data showed.

Supply inventories have risen at Singapore in recent weeks, while total supplies to Asia have firmed compared to last month.

ARA INVENTORIES

Inventories at ARA fell 6.3% to 1.08 million tons in the week to Sept. 21, latest data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

OTHER NEWS

– Oil prices rose on Friday as renewed global supply concerns from Russia’s fuel export ban counteracted demand fears driven by macroeconomic headwinds and high interest rates.

– Russia has temporarily banned exports of gasoline and diesel to all countries outside a circle of four ex-Soviet states with immediate effect in order to stabilise the domestic market, the government said on Thursday.

– U.S. oil refiners that cranked up processing this year amid soaring demand for gasoline and diesel are being hit by outages weighing on their ability to rebuild thin fuel stockpiles and helping drive up fuel prices.

– An Australian union alliance on Friday called off strikes at Chevron’s two major local liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, agreeing to resolve disputes that had threatened to disrupt around 7% of global LNG supplies.

WINDOW TRADES O/AS

– 180-cst HSFO: No trade
– 380-cst HSFO: One trade
– 0.5% VLSFO: One trade
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)