Kuwait’s newest refinery Al Zour has issued its first tender for fuel oil sales following a near eight-week hiatus, trade sources said on Monday, after a partial shutdown halted spot sales at the complex.

Al Zour’s low-sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) tenders are closely watched by market participants as the refinery is poised to be a major LSFO exporter when it ramps up fully, competing with other refiners in Asia and the Middle East.

Expectations of the resumption in Al Zour’s LSFO exports have caused Asia’s refining margins for the marine and power generation fuel to ease by more than 3% in May so far, Refinitiv data showed.

The refinery has offered 120,000 to 150,000 tonnes of LSFO -with maximum sulphur content of 0.5% – for loading between May 27 and 28 in a tender that closes on May 15, the sources said.

It last closed a LSFO tender on March 21, when it offered about 120,000 tonnes for loading between April 7 and 8.

Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC), which owns the refinery, said on April 21 that it resumed full refinery operations after technical issues led to a partial suspension.

Before the shutdown, Al Zour had typically issued LSFO tenders every one to two weeks since it began ramping up exports earlier this year.

Most of the facility’s LSFO cargoes from past tenders have landed in Asia or within the Middle East, including key trading and bunker hubs Singapore and Fujairah, ship-tracking data showed.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Kim Coghill, Florence Tan and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)