Singapore residual fuel oil inventories fell 2% in the week ended Aug. 18 to an over five-month low amid limited net imports, official data showed on Thursday.

Onshore fuel oil stocks fell by 494,000 barrels, or about 78,000 tonnes, to 22.07 million barrels, or 3.48 million tonnes, their lowest since the week to March 3, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

Singapore’s weekly net fuel oil imports were down 22% to a two-week low of 470,000 tonnes and were below the 2021 weekly average of 690,000 tonnes. Weekly figures, however, are volatile.

Compared with a year earlier, residual fuel stocks were 13% lower and below the 2021 weekly average of 23.19 million barrels.

The largest net imports were from Malaysia at 371,000 tonnes, followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 83,000 tonnes, Egypt at 80,000 tonnes and the Netherlands at 72,000 tonnes.

The top net export destinations for Singapore fuel oil were Saudi Arabia at 100,000 tonnes, followed by Hong Kong at 80,000 tonnes and Guam at 41,000 tonnes.

Singapore exports to Saudi Arabia, where power generation demand for fuel oil peaks in the hot summer moths, were at a seven month high.

Fuel oil flows into east Asia, most of which come to Singapore, for August are expected to total between 5 million tonnes to 5.5 million tonnes with 4.97 million tonnes assessed so far, according to assessments by Refinitiv Oil Research.

By comparison, Refinitiv Oil Research assessed the fuel oil flows in July at 6.2 million tonnes.

“We expect August arrivals to decline on-month, led by a loss of momentum in fuel oil feedstock buying from China and, to a lesser extent, by India and South Korea, particularly affecting high sulphur straight run and vacuum gasoil uptake,” Refinitiv Oil Research said.