Residual fuel oil inventories at key trading hub Singapore rose to a two-month high, showed official data on Thursday, as stockpiling grew amid a tight supply outlook.

Onshore fuel oil stocks edged 14.9% higher at 20.12 million barrels (3.17 million metric tons) in the week to Nov. 22, the latest data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

The stocks built despite a decline in net imports, which fell by about 25% week-on-week to 471,000 tons.

Stockpiling grew amid expectations of tighter supplies into the year-end, with less finished products slated to land in Asia.

Uncertainty lingered around supplies from key exporter Kuwait, following recent operational issues at the Kuwait Al Zour refinery.

There were no inflows from Kuwait in the week to Nov. 22, the data showed.

Meanwhile, most of Singapore’s fuel oil imports hailed from the Netherlands in the week, followed by Malaysia and Russia.

On the exports front, most cargoes headed out of Singapore to China, Australia and Italy in the same week.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Sohini Goswami)