SINGAPORE: Asia's 380-cst fuel oil cash premiums fell to a one-month low on Wednesday as deal values slipped and suppliers lowered their offers further to accommodate weaker buying interest.
Fuel oil inventories across Europe were up in June compared with May, and weekly inventories in the Fujairah oil storage hub were largely unchanged.
CASH PREMIUMS
- 380-cst cash premiums to Singapore quotes fell by $1.03 on Wednesday to 15 cents a tonne, their lowest since June 12.
- Three cash deals were reported on Tuesday, totalling 60,000 tonnes of 380-cst fuel oil.
- All three deals were concluded at $289 a tonne, equivalent to a discount of about minus 10 cents a tonne at the front of the window up to a premium of about 20 cents a tonne at the back of the window.
- By comparison, Monday's two trades exchanged hands at a 90 cent and $1.75 a tonne premium to Singapore quotes.
- In a reflection of the growing aggressiveness in suppliers' offers, Wednesday saw sellers offer 380-cst cargoes at premiums of $1 a tonne to Singapore quotes across the trading window, down from Tuesday's offer of $1-$3 a tonne.
FUJAIRAH INVENTORIES
- In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone (FOIZ) fuel oil inventories were down 25,000 barrels, or 0.2 percent, in the week to July 10 at 12.102 million barrels, data via S&P Global Platts showed.
- Despite rising summer demand, fuel oil inventories in the Fujairah hub have failed to draw over the past weeks partly as a result of weaker bunker fuel sales after the recent ban on Qatari-owned and operated vessels from calling at UAE ports, industry sources said.
EU INVENTORIES
- European fuel oil stocks rose to 69.10 million barrels in June, up 1.2 percent from May, but were down 11.5 percent from the same time last year, Euroilstock data showed on Tuesday.
- Seasonal maintenance at some units had concluded by the end of May, while solid margins encouraged refineries not in turnarounds to run at capacity. That lifted European crude runs in June to 10.471 million barrels per day (bpd), up 2.6 percent from May and 5.4 percent year on year.
TENDERS
- Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) unexpectedly issued a spot tender to export fuel oil in July, three industry sources said on Wednesday.
- KPC has not issued spot fuel oil export tenders since April, sources said, after the scheduled decommissioning of the 200,000 bpd Shuaibah refinery on April 1, which reduced Kuwaiti fuel oil supplies by about 250,000 tonnes a month.
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