Singapore residual fuel stocks fall to 6-week low

Residual fuel oil inventories in the Singapore fuel oil trading and storage hub fell to a six-week low in the week to Nov. 13 despite higher net imports, official data showed on Thursday. – Onshore fuel oil stocks fell by 544,000 barrels (about 86,000 tonnes), or 3%, from the previous week to 20.355 million barrels, or 3.206 million tonnes, data from Enterprise Singapore showed. – Weekly net fuel oil import volumes jumped 72% to a nine-week high of 946,000 tonnes and were well above the 2019 weekly average of 679,000 tonnes.

However, such weekly figures are volatile. – Compared with year-earlier levels, onshore fuel oil inventories were up 29%. – Singapore’s fuel oil net exports to China came in at a seven-week high of 110,000 tonnes for the week, followed by Vietnam with 30,000 tonnes and Bangladesh with 16,000 tonnes. – The largest net imports into Singapore originated from Iraq at 316,000 tonnes, followed by Malaysia at 224,000 tonnes, the Netherlands with 157,000 tonnes and the United Arab Emirates with 148,000 tonnes. – Singapore imports from Iraq hit a nine-month high, while imports from Malaysia were at a three-month high.

– So far this year, fuel oil inventories in Singapore averaged 21.090 million barrels a week, or 3.324 million tonnes, compared with 18.93 million barrels, or 2.981 million tonnes, in the previous year. Nov 13 Total Imports Total Exports Net Imports Fuel oil (in BANGLADESH 0 16,453 -16,453 tonnes) BELGIUM 20,765 0 20,765 CHINA 0 110,451 -110,451 EGYPT 0 0 0 ESTONIA 0 0 0 INDIA 32,811 186 32,625 INDONESIA 30,369 0 30,369 IRAQ 315,630 0 315,630 ITALY 35,361 0 35,361 JAPAN 26,795 0 26,795 KOREA, REP OF 1,509 0 1,509 MALAYSIA 467,720 244,099 223,621 NETHERLANDS 157,321 0 157,321 PHILIPPINES 28,246 10,977 17,269 THAILAND 5,055 0 5,055 UNITED ARAB 147,624 0 147,624 EMIRATES UNITED KINGDOM 23,626 0 23,626 UNITED STATES 65,118 0 65,118 VIETNAM 0 30,277 -30,277 TOTAL 1,357,949 412,443 945,506
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Roslan Khasawneh; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)