Page 12 - MEOG Week 18

MEOG ProJeCts & ComPanIes MEOG
Oil product stocks rise at Fujairah
uae
OIl product stocks at the UAE’s Port of Fujairah were up 6.1% week on week on April 27 at 24.65mn barrels, data obtained last week by S&P Global Platts shows.
The build-up was chiefly owing to a 24% week-on-week growth in light distillate stocks to 7.466mn barrels, marking an eight-week high, and a 16% increase in middle distillates to a three-month record of 4.121mn barrels, data produced by the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone (FOIZ).
These gains more than offset a 4% dip in stocks of heavy distillates and residues to 13.063mn barrels, which were at their lowest level since March 9.
The Fujairah hub at the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz is one of two major ports in the Gulf region, alongside Sohar in Oman, and serves as a key refuelling point for tankers transporting crude oil out of the Middle East. Storage tanks at the port were reported by Reuters to have reached full capacity at the start of April.
According to S&P Global Platts, demand for bunker fuel is expected to bolster the market for heavy distillates over the next few weeks, as COvID-19 movement restrictions are eased in
theUAE.
There is typically a lull in demand in the
region during the holy fasting month of Rama- dan, which began on April 24.
Platts estimates that there was a record $35 per tonne spread in delivered bunker prices for 0.5% sulphur marine fuel on April 24 between Singapore and Fujairah. This was the result of supply cancellations by struggling Singaporean oil trader Hin leong’s bunkering arm, Ocean Bunker Services, Platts said, which led to higher prices at the Asian port. On April 27 the spread shrank to $20 per tonne.
As for light distillates, the large-range tanker Analipsi lady is set to load gasoline early May for a voyage between Ruwais, in the UAE, and Sin- gapore. The Norstar Invictus was provisionally booked for a mid-May loading for a Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, to Singapore voyage, Platts sources said.
In the middle distillates market, gasoil was moving from the Gulf and India to Asia, as a result of favourable arbitrage economics, accord- ing to traders. With several countries in Asia extending lockdowns, demand for gasoil among non-industrial and non-commercial consumers is limited, sources said.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 18 06•May•2020