Singapore’s middle distillates stockpiles were little changed week-on-week, even as net exports of both gasoil/diesel and jet fuel/kerosene dipped for the first time in three weeks and two weeks, respectively.

Inventories of gasoil/diesel and jet fuel/kerosene held at key oil storage hub Singapore were 8.091 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 27, compared with 8.081 million barrels a week ago, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

Gasoil/diesel net exports fell by around 24% from a week earlier mostly due to an 82% decline in total imports.

The city-state only recorded imports from Russia for the week.

There are expectations of more cargoes to head for Singapore from northeast Asia in the next few weeks given the aggressive selling by refiners in South Korea, Taiwan and China these few days for January shipments, one trading source said.

At least 150,000 metric tons of gasoil/diesel loading from China and South Korea are expected to arrive in Singapore by mid-January, Kpler shiptracking data showed.

Singapore’s imports of the fuel are estimated at a two-month high for December, the data added.

Meanwhile, total exports of the gasoil/diesel fell at a slower pace compared with imports, posting a drop of around 35%.

Volumes were mostly heading to regional destinations such as Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia, in line with earlier expectations, given the poor trader margins to engage in east-west arbitrage trading activities.

Jet fuel/kerosene exports dipped by 50% as a result of the 53% drop in total exports for the week, even though there were almost no imports.

Exports remained focused on regional destinations, with Vietnam and Australia the largest contributors to the volumes.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap and Ashley Fang; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)