Asia Fuel Oil-Spot VLSFO premium extends uptrend

Asia’s spot premium for very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) continued its rally on Thursday amid a backdrop of tight prompt supply.

The cash premium was pegged above $22 per metric ton to Singapore quotes, while backwardation for the balance-September and October contract widened to $30.50 per ton.

Onshore inventories in Singapore recovered slightly in the week, latest data showed Thursday, but hovered below weekly average levels in August.

Weekly imports into the onshore storage tanks dropped for a third consecutive week, the data showed.

High sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) benchmarks also extended gains this week, with cash premium for the 380-cst grade pegged above $13.50 per ton on Thursday.

INVENTORY DATA

– Singapore onshore stockpiles edged up 3.4% to 18.76 million barrels, Enterprise Singapore data showed on Thursday.

OTHER NEWS

– Oil prices firmed on Thursday, edging up from multi-month lows on a possible delay to output increases by OPEC+ producers and a decline in U.S. inventories, though the gains were capped by persisting demand concerns.

– OPEC+ is discussing delaying an oil output increase scheduled to start in October after oil prices hit their lowest in nine months, four sources from the producer group told Reuters on Wednesday.

– Loadings of Nigeria’s main crude oil grades are set to fall month-on-month in October, preliminary schedules seen by Reuters show.

– Singapore will issue conditional approvals to import 1.4 gigawatts of electricity from two power projects in Indonesia, in addition to a previously agreed 2 GW of imports, senior minister Teo Chee Hean said in Indonesia on Thursday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh;)