Asia Fuel Oil VLSFO premium eases; short-lived rebound fizzles out

SINGAPORE: Asia’s spot cash premium for 0.5% very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) eased for a second consecutive session on Friday, giving up the uptick seen earlier in the week.

The East of Suez region remains amply supplied despite a hiatus in VLSFO tenders from Kuwait’s Al Zour, as Western barrels continued to flow east amid a workable arbitrage window. The 0.5% VLSFO cash premium dipped further to $9.44 a tonne on Friday, while front-month margin also closed lower day-on-day at a premium of $7.99 a barrel by 0830 GMT. Meanwhile, the cash premium for 380-cst high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) closed at $5.42 a tonne, trending lower in the week. Front-month margin also fell from the previous session, closing at a discount of $10.71 a barrel. In recent tenders, Taiwan’s CPC Corp sought 40,000 tonnes of low sulphur fuel oil per month for Keelung delivery between June and August, while Jordan’s JoPetrol offered 80,000 tonnes of high sulphur fuel oil for loading from Aqaba between May 17 and 19.

Fuel oil inventories in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub jumped 14% to 22-month highs of 1.41 million tonnes in the week to May 4, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

Oil prices rose on Friday but were poised for a third straight week of losses, after markets witnessed dramatic drops on fears of a weakening US economy and slowing Chinese demand.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, has cut the price of its June flagship crude to Asian buyers for the first time in four months, following a plunge in refining margins.

More than half of the 22 oil tankers in Venezuela’s fleet are so run down that they should be immediately repaired or taken out of service, according to an internal report from state-run oil company PDVSA that was shared exclusively with Reuters.