Singapore fuel oil stockpiles slip to three-week lows

SINGAPORE, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Singapore onshore fuel oil stockpiles fell to their lowest in three weeks, data showed on Thursday.

Residue inventories STKRS-SIN were at 18.91 million barrels (2.98 million tons) in the week to Feb. 19, down 5.8% from the previous week, Enterprise Singapore data showed. O/SING1

The fall came on the back of lower net imports which totalled about 225,000 tons, plummeting by more than 65% week-on-week. The net imports were calculated by subtracting total exports from total imports in the week.

Onshore fuel oil stockpiles averaged at 19.4 million barrels per week in February so far, down from January's average of 20.41 million barrels.

Most of the week's fuel oil imports were from Bahrain, Indonesia and Brazil. Meanwhile, most exports were headed to South Korea, China and Papua New Guinea.

Asia's high-sulphur fuel benchmarks have been supported on the forward pricing curve, with March/April intermonth spreads widening sharply this week. FUEL/A

Total fuel oil cargo arrivals to Asia have contracted by 22% month-on-month to about 4.6 million tons for February, led by a 35% contraction in Russian volumes, said LSEG Oil Research in a report this week.

(Data from Enterprise Singapore)