By Matthew Chye
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Residual fuel oil stocks at key trading hub Singapore dropped 2% from the previous week to hit a four-week low despite net imports rising for a fourth consecutive week, official data showed on Thursday.
Onshore fuel oil stocks fell by 2% to 20.81 million barrels (3.28 million tonnes) in the week ended Jan. 11, dropping to a four-week low, Enterprise Singapore data showed. [O/SING1]
The slight decline in weekly inventory levels came despite a gain in weekly net imports, which edged higher by 8% to 711,000 tonnes.
The top net fuel oil import volumes into Singapore continued to come from Malaysia at 317,000 tonnes this week, followed by the United Arab Emirates at 148,000 tonnes and Kuwait at 116,000 tonnes.
Top destinations for fuel oil net exports from Singapore were China at 104,000 tonnes, South Korea at 76,000 tonnes and New Caledonia at 35,000 tonnes.
January fuel oil inflows have been notionally assessed at 3.98 million mt so far, more than 1 million mt lower than December’s close at 5.04 million mt, as the impending EU ban on imports of seaborne Russian refined fuels on February 5 approaches, Refinitiv Oil Research said this week.
Jan 11, Fuel oil (in tonnes) Total Imports Total Exports Net Imports
ALGERIA 21,941 0 21,941
AUSTRALIA 0 25,000 -25,000
BANGLADESH 0 0 -0
BRAZIL 45,065 0 45,065
CHINA 0 103,886 -103,886
CONGO, DEM REP OF 75,242 0 75,242
INDIA 33,599 0 33,599
INDONESIA 67,345 10 67,336
JAPAN 35,560 14 35,546
KAZAKHSTAN 7,160 0 7,160
KOREA, REP OF 502 76,497 -75,996
KUWAIT 115,790 0 115,790
MALAYSIA 371,566 54,698 316,868
NEPAL 0 189 -189
NEW CALEDONIA 0 34,998 -34,998
NEW ZEALAND 0 18,008 -18,008
SAUDI ARABIA 67,045 0 67,045
TAIWAN 6,207 0 6,207
THAILAND 13,343 0 13,343
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 147,686 66 147,620
UNITED STATES 32,211 0 32,211
VIET NAM 0 15,741 -15,741
TOTAL 1,040,262 329,107 711,155
(Data from Enterprise Singapore)
(Reporting by Matthew Chye; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
