Spot fuel oil premiums were rangebound on Thursday, while the market eyed a tender from Kuwait’s Al Zour refinery for the sales of very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO).

The refiner had offered 130,000 metric tons of VLSFO for loading between August 11 and 12 in a tender that closes on Thursday.

Benchmarks for VLSFO were little changed on Thursday, with cash premium inching slightly higher above $6 per ton, while cracks for August closed at premiums of about $10.40 per barrel.

Meanwhile, benchmarks for high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) eased, with backwardation spreads narrowing for the prompt months. Cracks slipped day-on-day towards discounts of $6 per barrel.

Separately, Vietnam’s Nghi Son had offered 24,000 tons of fuel oil for loading in early August.

INVENTORY DATA

– Singapore onshore inventories rose 13.1% to 20.13 million barrels (3.17 million metric tons) in the week ended July 17, after sliding last week, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

OTHER NEWS

– Oil prices extended gains on Thursday, buoyed by a bigger than expected decline in crude stocks in the United States, the world’s largest oil consumer.

– Chinese refiner Rongsheng Petrochemical has bought 4.4 million barrels of Oman and Canadian crude oil exported from the recently expanded Trans-Mountain pipeline for delivery in October via a tender, trade sources said.

– Diesel exports from China in June rose almost three-fold compared to a year ago, data from the General Administration of Customs showed, as domestic demand remained in the doldrums.

– TotalEnergies has sold its 10% interest in a Nigerian joint venture to Mauritius-based Chappal Energies for $860 million, the French energy firm said.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)