Fewer imports drag Singapore fuel oil stocks to 9-year low

The largest net imports into Singapore originated from Colombia at 162,000 tonnes, followed by Indonesia at 95,000 tonnes, Malaysia at 83,000 tonnes and Saudi Arabia at 80,000 tonnes. (A vessel sails past as smoke billows from Royal Dutch Shell's Pulau Bukom offshore petroleum complex in Singapore during sunset . - Reuters filepic)

SINGAPORE: Singapore's weekly onshore fuel oil inventories continued to shrink after falling 1.397 million barrels (about 209,000 tonnes) to 14.799 million barrels (2.209 million tonnes) in the week ended Aug. 1, data from International Enterprise (IE) Singapore showed on Thursday.

Residual fuel stocks are now at their lowest since July 2009 after falling 8.6 percent in the week to Aug. 1, the data showed.

In the previous week, Singapore fuel oil stocks plummeted 17.5 percent to 6-1/2 year low of 16.196 million barrels (2.417 million tonnes).

The shrinking fuel oil stocks in Singapore came as no surprise to some trade sources which pointed to months of below-average arbitrage resupplies into Singapore as cargoes were diverted to the Middle East to meet strong seasonal demand there.

Fuel oil imports into Singapore were at a more than six-month low of 693,000 tonnes in the week to Aug. 1, the data showed.

Net fuel oil imports into Singapore in the week to Aug. 1 were at 244,000 tonnes compared to a 2018 average of 760,000 tonnes per week.

Compared with a year ago, the latest onshore fuel oil inventories were 36 percent lower.

Singapore's net exports of fuel oil to Hong Kong topped the week ended Aug. 1 at 135,000 tonnes, followed by Bangladesh at 61,000 tonnes and Guam at 39,000 tonnes.

The largest net imports into Singapore originated from Colombia at 162,000 tonnes, followed by Indonesia at 95,000 tonnes, Malaysia at 83,000 tonnes and Saudi Arabia at 80,000 tonnes.

Fuel oil imports into Singapore in the week to Aug. 1 from Iraq were absent for the first time since early-May while imports from the Netherlands were absent for a second consecutive week.

Fuel oil inventories in Singapore averaged 20.241 million barrels (3.021 million tonnes) a week since the start of 2018, compared with 23.552 million barrels (3.515 million tonnes) in 2017. - Reuters