Singapore residual fuel oil inventories climbed 5% in the week to June 9, extending sharp gains from the previous week as export volumes plunged, official data showed on Thursday.

Onshore fuel oil stocks rose by 1.32 million barrels, or about 209,000 tonnes, to a five-week high of 26.92 million barrels, or 4.24 million tonnes, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

The fuel oil stock were near a more than four-year high of 27.23 million barrels recorded at the start of May.

Compared to the same period last year, the residual fuel stocks were 5% higher and well above the 2021 weekly average of 23.2 million barrels.

Singapore fuel oil exports were at a four-week low of 182,000 tonnes in the week to June 9, down 37% from a 2021 weekly average of 289,000 tonnes.

This helped lift net import volumes into Singapore 84% from the previous week to a seven-week high of 946,000 tonnes which were well above the 2021 weekly average of 758,000 tonnes. Weekly figures, however, are volatile.

The largest net imports were from Malaysia at 302,000 tonnes, followed by Algeria with 193,000 tonnes, Colombia with 70,000 tonnes and Japan with 68,000 tonnes.

Singapore imports from Algeria were at a record high in the week to Wednesday, while imports from Japan were at a more than seven-month high.

Singapore’s top fuel oil net exports destinations were South Korea at 45,000 tonnes, Bangladesh at 20,000 tonnes and Indonesia at 12,000 tonnes.

Fuel oil flows into East Asia were assessed at between 5 million tonnes and 5.5 million tonnes in June, steady-to-higher from the 5.15 million tonnes in May and firmly higher from the 2020 monthly average of 4.82 million tonnes, assessments by Refinitiv Oil Research on Wednesday showed.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Roslan Khasawneh; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)