Asia’s spot fuel oil market was little changed on Thursday amid scant trade, while onshore inventories at Singapore rose to nearly three-month highs.
Cash premiums continued to hold steady in thin premiums, with 0.5% very low sulphur fuel oil MFO05-SIN-DIF pegged at $6.50 a metric ton, while 380-cst high sulphur fuel oil FO380-SIN-DIF was at $4 over Singapore quotes.
Singapore inventories edged higher in the week to Wednesday amid a recovery in net fuel oil imports, latest official data showed on Thursday.
The top three origin countries for imports were Malaysia, Brazil and Indonesia, while most cargoes heading out of Singapore were bound for China, the Philippines and New Caledonia in the week.
BUNKER UPDATES
– Singapore’s bunker sales fell 3.1% month-on-month to 4.26 million tons in November amid lower vessel calls, official data showed on Thursday.
– Singapore’s port authority said it was seeking proposals from companies to supply methanol as a marine bunker fuel at Singapore from 2025.
INVENTORIES
– Singapore onshore fuel oil stocks STKRS-SIN rose 14.4% to 21.57 million barrels (3.40 million metric tons) in the week to Dec. 13, latest data from Enterprise Singapore showed.
– Fujairah inventories FUJHD04 fell 11.7% to 9.43 million barrels (1.49 million tons) in the week to Dec. 11, showed FOIZ data published by S&P Global Commodity Insights this week.
OTHER NEWS
– Oil prices rose on Thursday on a bigger-than-expected weekly draw from U.S. crude storage and a weaker dollar after the U.S. central bank signalled lower borrowing costs for 2024.
– A tanker in the Red Sea off Yemen’s coast was fired on by gunmen in a speedboat and targeted with missiles, maritime sources said on Wednesday, the latest incident to threaten the shipping lane after Yemeni Houthi forces warned ships not to travel to Israel.
– A unit of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA and U.S. oil major Chevron have requested a 15-year extension for two of their joint ventures from the country’s oil ministry, the deputy minister Erick Perez said.
– Australia’s Woodside Energy and rival Santos are unlikely to announce any agreement on a proposed A$80 billion ($52 billion) tie-up to create a global oil and gas giant until at least February, said a person with direct knowledge of the talks.
WINDOW TRADES O/AS
– 180-cst HSFO: No trade
– 380-cst HSFO: No trade
– 0.5% VLSFO: No trade
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)