Singapore’s middle distillates inventories rose 5.7% from last week to almost 10 million barrels, as net exports of both jet fuel/kerosene and gasoil declined further, official data showed on Thursday.

Gasoil and jet fuel/kerosene inventory levels at the key oil storage hub wereat 9.948 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 8, a near two-year high, compared with 9.405 million barrels last week, the data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

Net exports of gasoil fell for the third straight week, declining 54% as total imports rose and total exports of the fuel fell.

Imports arrivals from regions such as China, South Korea and Malaysia remained brisk given the lucrative margins for sellers to keep cargoes within Asia amid a closed east-west arbitrage differential.India-origin imports resurfaced for the first time in nearly a month, in line with some earlier expectations, given the slower-than-expected demand in the West and marginally better margins for sellers to keep cargoes in the east, one Asian trade source said.

At least one more shipment from India, loading from Nayara Energy’s Vadinar refinery, is slated to enter Singaporein the next week, LSEG and Kpler shiptracking data showed.

January and February diesel exports next year from India’s west coast to Singapore also look lucrative for sellers, analysts at Sparta Commodities said.

On the gasoil export front, volumes were mostly headed to regional destinations such as Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia and Myanmar.

Separately, the city-state turned jet fuel/kerosene importer for the week as a result of an increase in China-origin arrivals totalling almost 40,000 metric tons.

More China-origin imports are expected in the coming weeks as Chinese oil majors continue exports on lucrative margins, one Asian refinery source said.

More than 100,000 tons of the aviation fuel is scheduled to load from China to Singapore for November so far, LSEG and Kpler shiptracking data showed.

Jet fuel/kerosene total exports declined 56% week on week, with cargoes mostly heading to Australia and Bangladesh.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Varun H K)