SINGAPORE: Asia’s 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) market edged higher on Friday, recouping losses from earlier in the week amid persistently tight supplies of finished grade materials.

Meanwhile, weekly residual fuel inventories climbed at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) and Singapore storage hubs while those in the Fujairah hub fell, industry data showed this week.

Fuel oil stocks in the ARA refining and storage rose by 67,000 tonnes to 1.17 million tonnes in the week ended Jan. 27, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global (IG) showed.

ARA fuel oil inventories were 6% higher on firmer imports from Russia.

Compared with last year, however, inventories at the ARA hub were 20% down and were also slightly below the five-year seasonal average of 1.2 million tonnes.

In Singapore, fuel oil inventories jumped 12% to their highest in nearly five months at 23.78 million barrels, or 3.75 million tonnes, as net import volumes surged.