Spot premium for high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) inched higher on Monday but the upside remained capped in anticipation of higher supplies this month.

The 380-cst grade high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) cash premium was pegged at $6.32 a metric ton, while 180-cst was relatively stable at $4.67 in the absence of any bids and offers, market participants said.

Energy consultancy FGE estimated scheduled fuel oil loadings from the Russian port of Tuapse to rise by 180,000 tons month-on-month to 330,000 tons in July.

“As most, if not all, of the Russian barrels end up in East of Suez, we expect elevated arrivals in Asia from July to September,” the consultancy said in a note.

In tenders, India’s HPCL sold three HSFO cargoes – scheduled to load from Vizag between July 24-26 to Vitol, Aug. 3-5 to Total and Aug. 13-15 to Vitol, trade sources said.

Traders kept a close eye Hurricane Beryl in the United States which could affect supplies in the event of a major outage.

NEWS

– A double whammy of record heat and hurricanes should test U.S. refiners’ resilience in the coming weeks, raising the risk of extremely volatile fuel prices in the middle of the peak travel season, analysts said.

– Oil prices fell 1% on Monday after gaining for four weeks as supply disruption worries eased on hopes of a ceasefire deal in Gaza, but the potential impact of Hurricane Beryl on supplies kept the slide in check. O/R

– Hurricane Beryl made landfall near the coastal town of Matagorda in Texas on Monday, bringing dangerous storm surges along the coast and packing strong winds and heavy rain as it moved inland, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mohi Narayan; Editing by Sohini Goswami)