Asia Fuel Oil-Markets little changed; Singapore stocks dip after four-week build

Fuel oil benchmarks were broadly stable in Asia on Thursday, while latest data showed that onshore stockpiles at Singapore dipped after four straight weeks of builds.

But despite the weekly drop, the inventories remained ample, averaging 20.03 million barrels a week in June and higher than May’s average of 18.09 million barrels a week.

Most of the inflows came from Brazil and the United States, as well as from Indonesia, official data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

Meanwhile, spot premiums for high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) and very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) were little changed on Thursday amid largely thin trade.

Refining margins closed slightly higher amid weaker crude prices in Asia trading hours. Front-month cracks for 380-cst HSFO rose to discounts of about $5.70 a barrel, while VLSFO cracks closed at premiums of around $10.90 a barrel.

In tenders, Taiwan’s CPC offered catalytic fractionator bottom (CFB) fuel for loading towards late July, a notice on its website showed.

INVENTORY DATA

– Singapore inventories fell 15.4% to 19.29 million barrels (3.04 million metric tons) in the week ended June 26, hitting a two-week low, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

OTHER NEWS

– Oil prices were largely steady on Thursday as a surprise build in U.S. stockpiles fuelled fears about slow demand from the world’s top oil consumer and countered supply concerns stoked by escalating conflict in the Middle East.

– Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery is operating normally after a fire at its effluent treatment plant, it said on Wednesday, after videos circulated online of dark plumes of smoke at the 650,000 barrel-per-day facility.

– India’s state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp does not see any major change in its annual crude processing this fiscal year, as it plans to shut a crude unit at its biggest refinery for a month for maintenance, an executive said on Thursday.

– Refiner Phillips 66 said on Wednesday its renewable fuels facility in California reached full production rates amid an ongoing supply glut of low-emission biofuels.

WINDOW TRADES

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