Singapore fuel oil stocks rise to six-week high, exports to Bangladesh jump

SINGAPORE: Singapore's residual fuel oil inventories rose 2pc in the week to Sept. 30 as net import volumes held above the 2020 weekly average, official data showed on Thursday.

Onshore fuel oil stocks rose by 414,000 barrels, or about 65,000 tonnes, to a six-week high of 24.047 million barrels, or 3.787 million tonnes, according to the Enterprise Singapore (ES) data.

The higher inventories, which marked three straight weeks of gains, helped to widen the gap from a more than eight-month low hit in the week to Sept. 9.

Residual fuel stocks were up 26pc from a year earlier.

Net import volumes at 727,000 tonnes in the week to Sept. 30 were down 35pc from the previous week's two-month high but above the 2020 weekly average of 675,000 tonnes. Weekly figures, however, were volatile.

Most of Singapore's fuel oil exports went to Bangladesh at 112,000 tonnes, followed by 60,000 tonnes to South Korea and 49,000 tonnes to New Caledonia.

Singapore exports of fuel oil to Bangladesh were at a more than 14-month high in the week to Wednesday.

The unusual fuel oil exports from Singapore to Saudi Arabia continued over the past week after 38,000 tonnes were shipped to the world's largest crude oil exporter.

Overall, Singapore has exported 724,000 tonnes of fuel oil to Saudi Arabia since the unusual arbitrage flow began in late-June, according to the ES data compiled by Reuters.

The largest imports into Singapore were from Malaysia at 400,000 tonnes, followed by Brazil with 145,000 tonnes, Bahrain with 84,000 tonnes and the Netherlands with 73,000 tonnes.