Stockpiles of oil products at the UAE’s Port of Fujairah dropped 13% in the week ended April 24, the biggest drop in four months, according to Fujairah Oil Industry Zone data April 26.

Total inventories fell to 19.960 million barrels as of April 24, with all categories showing declines, the FOIZ data provided exclusively to S&P Global Commodity Insights showed.

It was the biggest weekly drop since the week ended Dec. 19, leaving them at a two-week low after gaining 15% a week earlier.

Oil product shipments were about 1.22 million b/d in the week started April 17, double from 581,000 b/d in the prior week started April 10, according to data from S&P Global Commodities at Sea.

Angola was set to receive its first shipment (gasoline) on record from Fujairah since Commodities at Sea began tracking cargo in late 2016 and Qatar was set to receive about 48,000 b/d of jet fuel, the first such shipment to Qatar from Fujairah since July 2022.

Light distillates including gasoline and naphtha fell 20% over the week to 6.873 million barrels, a three-week low. Middle distillates such as diesel and jet fuel decreased less than 1% over the week to 3.426 million barrels after surging 38% a week earlier. Heavy distillates used as fuel oil for power generation and as ship fuel declined 11% to 9.661 million barrels, a two-month low.

Bunker fuel demand is considered moderate at best, with high sulfur fuel oil getting more interest than low-sulfur fuel oil, Fujairah traders said. Competition from sellers at the nearby Sharjah port of Khor Fakkan is still limiting demand, they said.

A shipment of 925,942 barrels of HSFO was loaded at Fujairah on April 18 and is expected to arrive at the Singapore Straits on May 4, according to Kpler shipping data.

The Platts Fujairah-delivered 380 CST high sulfur fuel oil bunker premium over the FO 380 CST 3.5% FOB Arab Gulf cargo assessments averaged $28.06/mt for April 3-26, down from $45.26/mt for all of March, according to data by S&P Global Commodity Insights. Supplies may start to grow after initial repairs at Kuwait Petroleum Corp.’s Al Zour refinery, which hadn’t shipped any LSFO to Fujairah since April 10.

Platts Fujairah-delivered marine fuel 0.5%S bunker premiums over the benchmark FOB Singapore marine fuel 0.5% sulfur cargo values averaged $11.84/mt over April 3-26, up from $8.81/mt for March, according to S&P Global data.

Total stockpiles were down 3.4% since the end of the 2022. Heavy distillates have dropped 4.5% so far in 2023, light distillates have declined 8% while middle distillates have increased 11% over the same period.
Source: Platts