Residual fuel oil stocks at key trading hub Singapore eased after striking more than a year’s high last week, with net imports sliding for a third consecutive week, official data showed on Thursday.

Onshore fuel oil stocks STKRS-SIN were at 23.52 million barrels (3.70 million tonnes) in the week to April 12, dipping 1% from the previous week, based on Enterprise Singapore data.

However, supplies are still high compared with the start of the year when weekly inventories were about 21 million barrels.

Weekly net fuel oil imports fell in the week as a jump in exports out of Singapore countered a mild decline in imports. Net fuel oil imports slipped 31% to 303,000 tonnes, the data showed.

China was the top destination for Singapore’s net fuel oil exports at 86,000 tonnes, followed by South Korea at 66,000 tonnes and Bangladesh at 45,000 tonnes.

Demand for fuel oil to be used as feedstocks remained steady from China in place of relatively more expensive crude barrels, while Bangladesh continued to import amid expectations of higher demand for power generation in summer.

Meanwhile, most of Singapore’s fuel oil net imports were from Malaysia at 148,000 tonnes, followed by India at 110,000 tonnes and Russia at 89,000 tonnes.

Total fuel oil supplies to wider Asia were pegged at 5.33 million tonnes for April, higher from March, based on Refinitiv Oil Research this week. These flows continued to be dominated by Russian fuel oil, which accounted for more than 60% of total arrivals, according to Refinitiv.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Sohini Goswami)