Lean net imports drag Singapore fuel oil inventories to 3-week low

Singapore

SINGAPORE fuel oil inventories fell to a three-week low in the week ended June 26 as net imports remained under pressure, official data released on Thursday showed.

Onshore fuel oil stocks shrank by 961,000 barrels (about 143,000 tonnes) from the previous week to 22.837 million barrels, or 3.409 million tonnes, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

Singapore fuel oil inventories are expected to remain under pressure in the coming weeks amid anticipated low arbitrage arrivals into the Singapore trading and storage hub, trade sources said. Arbitrage arrivals into East Asia were assessed at 4.55 million tonnes in June amid record low Western inflows and down from the 6.02 million tonnes seen in May, according to assessments by Refinitiv Oil Research released on Tuesday.

Net fuel oil imports, in the week ended June 26, were down 25 per cent from the previous week to a three-week low of 339,000 tonnes, and were below the 2019 weekly average of 706,000 tonnes. Such weekly figures, however, are volatile.

In the week ended June 12, net imports hit a more than 10-month high of 1.397 million tonnes.

Still, this week's onshore fuel oil inventories were 22 per cent higher than a year earlier. Singapore's net exports of fuel oil to Hong Kong topped the week ended June 26 at 80,000 tonnes; China at 40,000 tonnes; Bangladesh at 37,000 tonnes; and India at 6,000 tonnes.

The largest net imports into Singapore originated from Russia at 230,000 tonnes, followed by Malaysia at 86,000 tonnes, Iraq at 50,000 tonnes and Taiwan at 49,000 tonnes.

Fuel oil inventories in Singapore have averaged 21.793 million barrels a week, or 3.253 million tonnes, in 2019, compared with 18.93 million barrels, or 2.825 million tonnes, in the previous year. REUTERS