Singapore onshore inventories of residual fuel oil slipped for a second straight week on lower imports, while more demand for marine bunkers also led to a drawdown, data showed on Thursday.

Fuel oil stockpiles fell 6.6% to 21.01 million barrels (3.31 million metric tons) in the week to Jan. 24, hitting five-week lows, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

Net imports, which are calculated by subtracting total exports from total imports, were at 215,000 tons, compared with more than 1 million tons in the previous week.

The decline in inventories came as refuelling demand at key bunker hub Singapore strengthened after Red Sea ship diversions, with shippers and trading firms facing longer waits and higher prices for low-sulphur fuel deliveries.

On the export front, most outflows from Singapore headed for China and Australia, while the bulk of Singapore’s fuel oil inflows came from Brazil and Iraq.

However, the East of Suez region remains well-supplied amid heavy arbitrage and steady regional arrivals this month. Total January arrivals breached 6 million tons, based on assessments by LSEG Oil Research this week.

The weekly Singapore stockpile levels also remained higher versus 2023’s average of 20.34 million barrels a week, Reuters calculations based on Enterprise Singapore data showed
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)