Asia’s cash premiums for 0.5% very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) and high sulphur fuel oil inched higher on Friday after European inventories declined.

The Singapore 0.5% VLSFO premium rose to $8.70 a metric ton, from $8.52 a day earlier.

The balance-Dec/Jan timespread for VLSFO widened to $7.50 a ton on Friday, compared with $6.95 a ton a day before.

Meanwhile, the high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) market also gained ground. The cash premium for 380-cst grade rose to 47 cents a ton and the discount on 180-cst grade narrowed by 17 cents to $1.58 per ton.

INVENTORIES ARA/

Fuel oil stocks at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub fell to 1.256 million tons in the week to Thursday, compared with 1.266 million tons in the prior week, Insights Global data showed.

OTHER NEWS

– The Dangote oil refinery in Nigeria is set to receive its first cargo of 1 million barrels of crude oil from Shell International Trading and Shipping Co (STASCO) later on Friday, bringing the start of operations closer after years of delays.

– Bangladesh started in recent days a large crude oil receiving and offloading facility built by China that allows the south Asian oil importer to significantly reduce the cost of shipping in crude oil, a senior industry official told Reuters on Friday.

WINDOW TRADES O/AS

– 180-cst HSFO: No trade
– 380-cst HSFO: No trade
– 0.5% VLSFO: No trade
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mohi Narayan; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)