Residual fuel oil stockpiles at key trading hub Singapore fell for a second consecutive week to a one-month low, official data showed on Thursday.

Onshore fuel oil inventories fell 5% to 18.55 million barrels (2.92 million metric tons) in the week ended Nov. 8, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

The dip came amid a sharp decline in net fuel oil imports and a firm market backwardation.

Net imports, calculated by subtracting total exports from total imports, fell by more than five timesweek-on-week to 233,490 tons, based on the Enterprise Singapore data.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s balance-month backwardation for 0.5% very low sulphur fuel oil hit $32 a metric ton on Nov. 9, staying wide above $30, LSEG data showed.

A backwardated market discourages storage economics and prompts selling interest as spot prices are higher than for later months.
Most of Singapore’s fuel oil imports in the week to Nov. 1 camefrom Malaysia, Indonesia and India, the data showed.

Meanwhile, most of the exports were headed for Hong Kong, China and South Korea in the same week.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Ashley Fang; Editing by Eileen Soreng)