Singapore fuel oil inventories recover to one-month high

Residual fuel oil stockpiles at key trading hub Singapore extended gains for a second straight week to scale a one-month high, official data showed on Thursday.

Onshore fuel oil inventories rose 0.7% at 19.54 million barrels (3.08 million metric tons) in the week ended Oct. 25, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

Earlier this month, a stronger market backwardation had spurred selling interest and discouraged storage, though the backwardation had narrowed in recent trading sessions.

However, a sharp drop in net fuel oil imports capped the extent of the weekly inventory build.

Net imports, which are calculated by subtracting total exports from total imports, fell by nearly 75% week-on-week at 233,000 tons.

Total exports more than doubled from the previous week, led by a climb in volumes to top destination China at 147,000 tons, followed by Hong Kong at 77,000 tons.

Supplies also headed out to other less common destinations, including Guam and Papua New Guinea.

Meanwhile, most of Singapore’s fuel oil imports came from Malaysia, Russia and Indonesia in the week.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)