Singapore fuel oil stockpiles ease to four-weeks low

SINGAPORE, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Onshore fuel oil stockpiles in Singapore dipped to their lowest in four weeks after imports retreated week-on-week, official data showed on Thursday.

Inventories for residual fuels STKRS-SIN fell to 23.03 million barrels (about 3.63 million metric tons) in the week to October 22, down 8.1% from the previous week, Enterprise Singapore data showed. O/SING1

Fuel oil imports fell 25% to about 773,000 tons, after breaching 1 million tons in the previous week. Top origins of the week's inflows were Brazil, Indonesia and Russia.

Meanwhile, exports slumped 42% to about 355,000 tons, with most outflows headed towards Hong Kong.

Despite a weekly decline in the inventories, the current market structure is likely to provide some storage incentive.

The balance-October/November intermonth spread and the November/December spread are currently in contango for high-sulphur and low-sulphur markets, data from industry sources showed.

A contango is when prices for prompt supply are lower than that for later delivery, typically spurring more incentive for storage.

Current inventories are also holding above weekly averages. Singapore's residual fuel inventories averaged at about 22.2 million barrels per week in 2025, calculations based on past data showed.

The persistently high inventories continued to limit the market from rebounding, with spot differentials for both high-sulphur and low-sulphur fuel oil staying discounted this week. FUEL/A

(Data from Enterprise Singapore)