Business
Singapore's oil product stocks rebound to one-month high
Singapore's oil product stocks rebound to one-month high
About this update from S-oil Corporation
By Mohi Narayan, Jeslyn Lerh and Ruth ChaiOil product inventories held in Singapore, an Asian trading hub, rebounded to levels not seen in a month, recovering from 13-year lows recorded last week as stocks recovered across the board, official data showed on Thursday.Onshore oil product stocks totalled around 42.19 million barrels in the week to June 24, rebounding 20% from the previous week, according to Enterprise Singapore data.Global oil inventories have largely fallen since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran kicked off. But traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has increased this week after peace talks concluded, allowing more cargoes to resume transit.STOCKS HIT FOUR-WEEK HIGHSInventories for light distillates, residual fuels and middle distillates all hit four-week highs.Total gasoline exports stood at about 11.45 million metric tons (97 million barrels) for the week, far exceeding imports of roughly 266,000 tons, with South Korea alone taking nearly 10.77 million tons, followed by Indonesia with about 242,000 tons.Meanwhile, naphtha inventories increased as imports of about 321,000 tons (2.9 million barrels) exceeded exports of around 86,000 tons, with cargoes arriving mainly from Russia at about 183,000 tons, outweighing outbound shipments chiefly to Indonesia at 60,000 tons.There were no Middle Eastern naphtha and fuel oil imports recorded this week, though market sources expect a supply recovery going forward due to the reopening of the strait.Residual fuel oil inventories rebounded to more than 20 million barrels for the first time since late May, climbing 35.4% from a week earlier to 20.3 million barrels (3.2 million tons).Total imports rose 47% to nearly 760,000 tons, with South Korea emerging as a top origin at nearly 130,000 tons of volume. This was led by active fuel oil tender sales refiners including GS Caltex and S-Oil, market sources said. They did not want to be publicly identified because they are not authorised to speak to the media.Brazil was the next top origin as part of regular arbitrage supplies from the West, followed by Indonesia, which has been selling residual fuel via regular tenders.Meanwhile, total fuel oil exports fell 15% to about 356,000 tons.MIDDLE DISTILLATE EXPORTS FALLMiddle distillate stockpiles rose about 3% this week as exports fell, even as imports were sluggish. Stockpiles recovered by 283,000 barrels from a week ea...