Residual fuel oil stocks at key trading hub Singapore dipped in the week to March 1 on aggressive selling, official data showed on Thursday.

The drop came after some sellers offered sharply lower prices to encourage uptake for bunkers, which saw a big decline in demand over February.

Onshore fuel oil stocks fell 9% to a five-week low of 20.60 million barrels (3.24 million tonnes) in the week ended March 1, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

The drawdown was also due to a fall in weekly net imports, which softened 38% week-on-week to 502,000 tonnes.

Singapore’s biggest net fuel oil imports were from Saudi Arabia at 221,000 tonnes, followed by Malaysia at 146,000 tonnes and Iraq at 80,000 tonnes.

Top destinations for Singapore’s fuel oil net exports were Thailand at 68,000 tonnes, Bangladesh at 38,000 tonnes and South Korea at 19,000 tonnes.

The broader Asian market remained awash with supplies, with spot cash premiums and refining margins for the low-sulphur grade under pressure.

Total fuel oil supplies to Asia, most of which end up in key trading hub Singapore, totalled more than 6 million tonnes for February, hitting a 16-month high, based on Refinitiv Oil Research this week.
Source: Reuters