Asia’s fuel oil markets were little changed on Friday, while India sold more high-sulphur supplies via tender for loading in the coming months.

India’s HPCL offered six cargoes of high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) for loading in August, September and October, based on market sources.

Each cargo is 30,000 metric tons and will load from Mumbai port. The tender closes on Friday, said sources.

Spot benchmarks were largely stable for HSFO, with cash premiums for both 180-cst and 380-cst grades holding near $5 per ton. Meanwhile, cracks closed at discounts of $5.50 per barrel.

The very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) market inched slightly higher, with cash premium pegged at $7 per ton, while cracks climbed above premiums of $10.60 per barrel, based on LSEG data.

INVENTORY DATA
– ARA inventories rose 1.5% to 1.42 million tons in the week to July 18, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

OTHER NEWS
– Oil prices were little changed on Friday as a strong dollar and concern over top oil importer China’s economy were countered by a tighter supply outlook.

– Traders in oil, gas, power, stocks, currencies and bonds from London to Singapore struggled to operate on Friday as a global cyber outage hampered operations, companies, banks and trading sources said.

– Two large oil tankers were on fire on Friday after colliding in waters near Singapore, the world’s biggest refuelling port, with two crew members airlifted to hospital and others rescued from life rafts, authorities and one of the companies said.

– Singapore’s Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation has completed its final trial of biofuels for powering ships with German container firm Hapag-Lloyd and energy major BP, it said in a statement this week.

WINDOW TRADES
– 180-cst HSFO: No trade
– 380-cst HSFO: No trade
– 0.5% VLSFO: No trade
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)