Residual fuel oil stocks at key trading hub Singapore fell 3% to a four-week low, as weekly net imports continued to trend lower, official data showed Thursday.

The drawdown came at a time when premiums for very low sulphur fuel oil stabilised after falling to 15-month lows earlier this month.

Onshore fuel oil stocks were at 19.42 million barrels in the week to Sept. 14, or 3.06 million tonnes, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

Weekly net imports of fuel oil dropped for four straight weeks, standing at 677,000 tonnes.

The largest net import volumes were from Malaysia at 585,000 tonnes, the United Arab Emirates at 257,000 tonnes and Brazil at 172,000 tonnes.

Top destinations for Singapore’s fuel oil net exports were China at 149,000 tonnes, Saudi Arabia at 118,000 tonnes and Bangladesh at 112,000 tonnes.

However, expectations of more fuel oil supply to Asia could limit the extent of inventory drawdowns at Singapore over the next few weeks.

September fuel oil flows into East Asia, most of which go to Singapore, are expected to climb above 5.0 million tonnes in September versus 4.0-4.5 million tonnes in August, latest weekly assessments by Refinitiv Oil Research showed.

Marex Media