Residual fuel oil stocks at key trading hub Singapore dropped 2% from the previous week to hit a four-week low despite net imports rising for a fourth consecutive week, official data showed on Thursday.

Onshore fuel oil stocks fell by 2% to 20.81 million barrels (3.28 million tonnes) in the week ended Jan. 11, dropping to a four-week low, Enterprise Singapore data showed. O/SING1

The slight decline in weekly inventory levels came despite a gain in weekly net imports, which edged higher by 8% to 711,000 tonnes.

The top net fuel oil import volumes into Singapore continued to come from Malaysia at 317,000 tonnes this week, followed by the United Arab Emirates at 148,000 tonnes and Kuwait at 116,000 tonnes.

Top destinations for fuel oil net exports from Singapore were China at 104,000 tonnes, South Korea at 76,000 tonnes and New Caledonia at 35,000 tonnes.

January fuel oil inflows have been notionally assessed at 3.98 million mt so far, more than 1 million mt lower than December’s close at 5.04 million mt, as the impending EU ban on imports of seaborne Russian refined fuels on February 5 approaches, Refinitiv Oil Research said this week.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Matthew Chye; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)