Asia Fuel Oil-VLSFO discount widens, market structure slips to parity

The spot discount for very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) widened on Monday, while the market intermonth structure weakened to parity for the balance month, weighed by bearish fundamentals for the prompt market.

Singapore’s VLSFO cash differential was pegged at a discount of $2 a metric ton, with the product trading lower, while the balance-April/May intermonth spread was pegged at parity, softening from a slight backwardation previously.

Meanwhile, spot discounts for high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) held steady on largely quiet activity, though India’s HPCL offered three HSFO cargoes for loading in May via a tender that closes on Monday.

Refining margins for fuel oil inched slightly higher from last week. Cracks for VLSFO closed at premiums of slightly above $10 a barrel at 0830 GMT, while 380-cst HSFO cracks closed at discounts of about $11 a barrel, based on LSEG data.

BUNKER SALES

Marine bunker sales at Singapore rose nearly 12% in the first quarter from the same period last year, driven by stronger demand following Red Sea shipping disruptions that forced vessels to take longer routes.

But the data also showed that sales on a sequential basis fell for a third straight month in March, indicating that the trend of stronger demand is softening.

March bunker sales, including conventional and alternative fuels, totalled 4.45 million metric tons, down 1.4% from February.

Meanwhile, marine biofuel sales reached a five-month high of 66,000 tons in March, and liquefied natural gas sales rose for a to a new monthly record high at 38,600 tons.

OTHER NEWS

– Oil prices slipped by about 1% on Monday, with the market downplaying the risk of broader regional conflagration after Iran’s weekend attack on Israel.

– State-run China National Offshore Oil Co, one of the country’s top importers of Russian oil, has in recent months been pumping shipments of ESPO blend from Russia’s Far East into a newly launched reserve base, according to traders and tanker trackers.

– A Liberian-flagged natural gas tanker that was stranded in the Gulf of Aqaba on Friday has been moved away, said two Egyptian sources at the southern Sinai nature reserves.

– Japan’s largest power company JERA Co. has created a global renewable energy business to be headquartered in London, as it seeks to increase low-carbon investments to meet decarbonisation targets, the head of the new unit told Reuters.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)