As of Monday, August 27 total oil product stocks in Fujairah stood at 16.156 million barrels – down by 2.5% week on week. Stocks levels fell to a five-month low as inventories declined across all categories.
Stocks of light distillates fell by 3.4% week on week to 5.225 million barrels. Sentiment in the East of Suez gasoline market has cooled after the spike seen following the FCC outage at Reliance’s Jamnagar refinery two weeks ago. “Overall [the market] feels less tight now with various refineries getting back to normal,” a Singapore-based trader said. There were some fresh buy tenders from the Middle East that added support to sentiment. Market sources said Kuwait’s KPC sought a combination cargo comprising 25,000 mt of 91 RON gasoline and 25,000 mt of 95 RON gasoline for delivery over September 19-20 to Mina al-Ahmadi in a tender that closed August 28, with same-day validity.
Stocks of middle distillates fell by 5.8% week on week to 3.532 million barrels. Stocks retreated from the year’s high seen last week, and swaps time spreads for gasoil have seen a gradual strengthening over the past few weeks. This is indicative of expectations for overall tighter gasoil supply balances heading into September and October. In India, refiners have strategically altered their oil products output to maximize gasoil yields due to attractive margins, but exports could slow during the rest of the year as domestic demand recovers after the monsoon season, S&P Platts reported Wednesday.
Stocks of heavy distillates and residues fell by 17.2% week on week to 7.399 million barrels – a near five-month low. In Fujairah, trade sources said that tighter cargo supply in recent days was still lending support to bunker fuel premiums, while buying sentiment remained steady. Trading activity was quieter last week due to the Eid al-Adha holidays, but Fujairah bunker demand has been rising steadily since the end of July as prices were competitive when compared with Singapore, sources said. Delivered 380 CST bunker prices in Fujairah were assessed at $7/mt above Singapore yesterday, compared to a discount of $9/mt as recently as two weeks ago.
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30th August 2018
