Inventories of gasoil/diesel and jet fuel/kerosene at key oil storage hub Singapore slipped by 3% week-on-week to 6.903 million barrels in the week through Jan. 17, data from Enterprise Singapore showed. [O/SING1]
Net exports of gasoil/diesel soared by almost 40% from the previous week, with total exports rising by almost 7%.
Volumes mostly headed to regional destinations, led by Indonesia, which was in line with early expectations as fuel buyers there had stepped up purchases since the refinery maintenance season started in end-2023.
Exports to Thailand, albeit low, emerged for the first time in a long while, following an unexpected crude unit shutdown there since this week.
There could be more reshuffling of cargoes by one or two traders back to Thailand if the trouble persists for more than the current state of two weeks, one source said.
Volumes to other destinations such as Australia and Malaysia remained prevalent.
There were some exports to the United States as well, with LSEG and Kpler shiptracking data showing the destination as Long Beach and likely to be a biofuels cargo.
Imports declined by around 26% week on week, but China-origin cargoes emerged for the first time in almost a month, following the availability of export quotas since the new year started.
More than 135,000 metric tons of China-origin diesel/gasoil will likely arrive in Singapore in January, LSEG shiptracking data showed.
South Korea-origin diesel/gasoil were also prevalent for the second straight week.
However, the decline in stockpiles was slowed down by a 39% drop in net exports of jet fuel/kerosene, the data showed.
Total exports still grew, with exports to Indonesia and Malaysia being the most significant for the week.
Arrivals from China were the key contributor, with the city-state receiving almost 40,000 tons of the aviation and heating fuel for this week.
(1 ton = around 7.45 barrels for gasoil)
(1 ton = around 7.88 barrels for jet fuel/kerosene)
(Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
By Trixie Yap
