Residual fuel oil stocks at key trading hub Singapore inched higher by 1% to a two-week high amid an uptick in weekly net imports, official data showed on Thursday.

Steady fuel oil supplies into Asia have kept onshore inventories buoyed, despite interest from some sellers to clear stocks amid a backwardated market.

Onshore fuel oil stocks were at 19.89 million barrels (3.13 million tonnes) for the week ended Nov. 30, while net imports rose 2% week-on-week at about 436,000 tonnes, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

Fuel oil stocks have trended higher month-on-month, averaging at around 618,000 tonnes per week in November, compared with around 589,000 tonnes per week in October, the data showed.

The biggest net import volumes in the week ended Nov. 30 were from Malaysia at 288,000 tonnes, Spain at 48,000 tonnes and Thailand at 44,000 tonnes.

Meanwhile, top destinations for net fuel oil exports from Singapore were Philippines at 47,000 tonnes, Vietnam at 14,000 tonnes and the United States at 9,800 tonnes.

November fuel oil flows into East Asia, most of which are bound for Singapore, were pegged between 4.5 to 5.0 million tonnes, climbing over 13% month-on-month, based on latest assessments by Refinitiv Oil Research this week.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Rashmi Aich)