SINGAPORE: The market for high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) steadied on Wednesday, having softened in recent sessions, while landed stocks at the Fujairah trading hub fell to 34-week lows.

The cash differential for 180-cst HSFO rebounded after slumping to eight-month lows this week, rising to a discount of $3.58 a tonne to Singapore quotes on Wednesday, while 380-cst HSFO rose slightly to a premium of 25 cents a tonne.

Meanwhile, premiums for 0.5% very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) held in a tight range of $20 to $25 a tonne in recent sessions, with recent trades and spot demand having kept the market supported.

Kuwait’s Al Zour this week sold another 120,000 tonne 0.5% VLSFO cargo for loading Feb. 24-25 via tender, trade sources said. The cargo was awarded to Japanese trading house Marubeni and sold between parity and a slight premium to 0.5% VLSFO Singapore quotes, the sources added.

Residual fuel oil stocks at Fujairah slipped 12% to 8.53 million barrels (1.34 million tonnes) in the week ended Feb. 6, according to Fujairah Oil Industry Zone data published by S&P Global Commodity Insights.

Oil prices were little changed on Wednesday against a backdrop of subdued movements in the dollar and while investors await further inventory data for clues on demand trends.

Western sanctions on Russia have significantly reduced state oil revenue and diverted tens of billions of dollars towards shipping and refining companies, some with Russian connections, trading and banking sources said.

Oman LNG has agreed to supply China’s Unipec with about 1 million metric tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year for four years, starting 2025, state news agency ONA said.

Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp on Wednesday said it has agreed to conduct a joint study of potentially producing clean ammonia with South Korea’s Lotte Chemical Corp and German energy group RWE in the US state of Texas.