Asia Fuel Oil-VLSFO dips after recent gains; Singapore inventories climb

Asia’s very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) market eased on Thursday after earlier gains in the week, while inventories at Singapore rose to a four-week high.

Cash premium MFO05-SIN-DIF dipped to $7.75 a metric ton, while October crack fell to a premium of $7.33 a barrel at 0830 GMT.

Ample supply inflows continued to cap the overall fuel oil market. Singapore’s net fuel oil imports nearly doubled week-on-week, showed Enterprise Singapore data on Thursday.

Meanwhile, high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) margins steadied on Thursday, with October crack for 380-cst HSFO climbing to a discount of $13.06 a barrel at the Asia close.

SINGAPORE INVENTORIES

Onshore fuel oil stocks STKRS-SIN were up 5% at 21.86 million barrels (3.44 million metric tons), hitting four-week highs, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

The uptick came as weekly net imports, which are calculated by subtracting total exports from total imports, nearly doubled week-on-week at 1.01 million tons.

The United Arab Emirates remained the top origin for Singapore’s fuel oil imports at 274,000 tons, followed by Brazil at 227,000 tons.

FUJAIRAH BUNKER SALES

Marine fuel sales at the UAE’s Fujairah, the world’s third-largest bunker hub, scaled eight-month highs in August, although volumes remained lower from a year-ago period, data showed.

August bunker sales, excluding lubricants, were at 677,503 cubic metres, or about 671,000 metric tons, up 2.7% month-on-month but down 6.3% from the same month last year, according to the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone data.

OTHER NEWS

– Oil prices fell on Thursday, after posting the largest decline in a month in the previous session, as U.S. interest rate hike expectations offset the impact of drawdowns in U.S. crude stockpiles.

– Oman’s Duqm refinery has completed its start-up processes and its operator OQ aims to begin commercial operations by year-end, it said on Thursday.

– Russia cut its seaborne diesel and gasoil exports by nearly 30% in the first 20 days of September from the same time in August, as local refineries went into seasonal maintenance and the domestic market faces a fuel shortage and rising prices.

– Exxon Mobil Corp expects its motor fuels and chemicals earnings to reach $16 billion by 2027, up about $4 billion from current levels as demand continues to rise, executives said.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)