Singapore’s middle distllates inventories rose for the second consecutive week as a decline in jet fuel/kerosene net exports outweighed increments in diesel/gasoil net exports, official data showed on Thursday.

Stockpiles of gasoil/diesel and jet fuel/kerosene at the key oil storage hub climbed to 7.085 million barrels in the week of Feb. 1, from 6.927 million barrels a week earlier, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

Net jet fuel/kerosene exports fell around 65% from the previous week, with total exports down by similar levels.
Exports for the week remained focused on destinations in the Pacific region, such as New Zealand and Fiji.

There were firm expectations of some China-origin jet fuel arriving into Singapore soon, given the consistent selling interest in the last two weeks as China oil majors sought to profit from lucrative export margins.

At least 35,000 metric tons of jet fuel will likely flow from China to Singapore for February, preliminary shiptracking data from LSEG showed.

On the diesel/gasoil front, net exports grew by around 63%, despite total imports growing by twofold from a week earlier.
Imports from India, China, South Korea and Russia were the key contributors this week.

Majority of these volumes were within the market’s expectations. India-origin volumes are expected to continue into Singapore, analysts say.

“Adjusting arbitrage calculations given the recent disruptions in the Red Sea, it suggests that several AG (Arab Gulf) and WCI (west coast India) arbitrage routes now favour an eastward trajectory,” said Sparta Commodities analyst James Noel-Beswick.

China-origin cargoes are likely to flow into Singapore as well for February, albeit slightly lower than January due to better local demand, one China-based trade source said.

Exports-wise, volumes continued to flow to key regional destinations in southeast Asia such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar.

Volumes to Australia and New Zealand were also prevalent for the transport and industrial fuel this week.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Varun H K)