FUJAIRAH DATA: Oil product stocks fall to 7-week low on record light distillates slump

Oil product inventories at the Port of Fujairah in the UAE dropped to a seven-week low as gasoline and other light distillates posted a record slump to an all-time low.

The total inventory stood at 15.971 million barrels as of April 4, down 10.7% from a week earlier and the lowest since the record low on Feb. 14, according to Fujairah Oil Industry Zone (FOIZ) data provided exclusively to S&P Global Commodity Insights on April 6.

Light distillates plunged 42.4% over the same period to 3.41 million barrels, the lowest ever and biggest weekly decline since Fujairah began sharing the data with S&P Global in January 2017.

Stockpiles have been volatile in the past few months, with the total posting a record drop in November 2021 and an all-time low in February 2022, while middle distillates fell to a record low in March. Inventories have declined 17.19% since this time last year and are well below the record high of 30.7 million barrels in June 2020.

Fujairah’s gasoline imports in March were the lowest on record, averaging 56,900 b/d with Saudi Arabia, India and sources in the UAE providing the supplies, according to Kpler. At the same time, Fujairah’s exports of naphtha to Japan for March averaged 33,400 b/d, well above the February total of 8,000 b/d, the Kpler data showed.

Naphtha is also included in the light distillates, along with other light petrochemical feedstocks, condensates and gasoline blending components such as reformate and alkylate. Light distillates stocks have dropped 54.7% since this time last year.

Middle distillates stocks stood at 1.87 million barrels as of April 4, up 4.6% from a week earlier and the highest in five weeks, according to the FOIZ data. Jet fuel, gasoil and diesel are among the products included in the category. Middle distillates stocks have slumped 46.9% in the past year.

Inventories of heavy distillates including fuel for marine bunkers and for power generation stood at 10.691 million barrels as of April 4, up 4.9% from a week earlier and a three-week high. Heavy distillates is the only category to show more stockpiles in the past year, rising 29.8% since the end of March 2021.
Source: Platts