Singapore’s middle distillates stocks climb to three-month high
Singapore’s middle distillates stockpiles rose to a three-month high despite rising net exports of both diesel/gasoil and jet fuel/kerosene while diesel/gasoil imports from India and the Middle East continued, official data showed on Thursday.
Inventories of diesel/gasoil and jet fuel/kerosene at the key oil storage hub were at 11.353 million barrels for the week ended July 31, a 3% jump from 11.052 million barrels in the previous week.
Total diesel/gasoil exports nearly doubled from the previous week, while total imports dipped by around 24%.
Exports to Indonesia, Australia and Malaysia were robust this week, as some refiners in two of these regions sought to replenish their inventories amid lower refining runs due to maintenance.
Imports of the industrial and transport fuel came from mostly South Korea, Malaysia and Bahrain.
Volumes from India and Saudi Arabia were also present, in line with earlier analyst expectations, as sellers were incentivised to send cargoes to east of Suez markets because of freight cost consideration and tepid demand from Europe.
However, there was a bout of cautiousness in the market on the sustainability this trade flow into August given the recent downtrend in east-west freight costs and ample regional supplies already in Asia.
Middle East diesel arbitrages are now firmly pointing west, and August and September diesel loaders from India are likely to flow more westward as well given the similar cashbacks in both east and west markets, said Sparta Commodities James Noel-Beswick in a note to clients.
So far, for August loading, India’s diesel shipments were all bound for either Europe or Africa, shiptracking data from LSEG showed.
Separately both total exports and total imports of jet fuel gained by around three times from a week earlier.
The growth in imports from China week on week was a key driver.
Total exports of the aviation fuel were robust to Australia and Indonesia, likewise diesel/gasoil.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by David Goodman and Varun H K)