Asia’s fuel oil market held steady on Thursday, while onshore inventories at Singapore fell after a three-weeks build.
Weekly residual fuel oil stocks slipped to four-week lows at Singapore as net imports eased after a recent spike, official data showed on Thursday.
The decline in inventories and expectations of tighter supplies for the first half of July have kept prices buoyed in recent trading sessions, though western arbitrage imports remained high amid a wide East-West fuel oil price spread.
Singapore’s cash premium for 0.5% very-low sulphur fuel oil MFO05-SIN-DIF was pegged little changed at $17.51 a metric ton to cargo quotes, while the product’s front-month refining margin LFO05SGDUBCMc1 closed at a premium of $13.64 a barrel at the Asia close (0830 GMT).
The high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) market was steady throughout the week, with spot 380-cst HSFO cash premium FO380-SIN-DIF pegged at $2.33 a ton on Thursday, though front-month refining margin FO380DUBCKMc1 closed higher at a discount of $7.86 a barrel, based on Refinitiv data.
In tenders, Taiwan’s CPC bought 40,000 tonnes of VLSFO for delivery between August and September at Keelung. The seller was oil major Shell, trade sources said.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Formosa sold 40,000 tonnes of main column bottoms for loading between July 13 and 17, at a discount of about $88 a ton to 0.5% VLSFO cargo quotes.
SINGAPORE INVENTORIES O/SING1
Onshore fuel oil stocks STKRS-SIN fell 13% to 18.54 million barrels (2.92 million tonnes) in the week ended June 21, snapping a three-weeks build, Enterprise Singapore data showed.
Weekly net imports, calculated by subtracting total exports from total imports, fell 7% to 739,000 tons, after more than doubling in the previous week.
OTHER NEWS
– Oil futures dipped on Thursday amid demand fears after the Federal Reserve chairman hinted at further interest rate hikes, while traders awaited official U.S. inventory data following an industry report that showed an unexpected draw in crude stocks.
– Two crude cargoes loaded from China’s Penglai oilfields arrived at Singapore and Malaysia in May and June, Refinitiv data showed, an unusual export from the world’s largest crude importer.
– Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority has seen revenues reach a record $9.4 billion in the current financial year, which ends on June 30, up from $7 billion in the previous year, Chairman Osama Rabea said.
– U.S. crude oil refining capacity has reversed two years of declines and climbed by more than 100,000 barrels to 18.1 million barrels per day (bpd), according to a government report.
WINDOW TRADES O/AS
– 180-cst HSFO: No trade
– 380-cst HSFO: No trade
– 0.5% VLSFO: No trade
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)