According to figures released by Dutch oil analyst Pieter Kulsen on Thursday, 680,000 metric tonnes (mt) of fuel oil was in storage last week.

That was down from 749,000 mt the week before but slightly up on the 667,000 mt in storage at this time last year.

Kulsen said stocks had been replenished by cargoes from Brazil, the Caribbean, France, Russia and the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, bunker players in the region said local refiners might be about to increase their output of asphalt, at the expense of fuel oil.

“Most bitumen contracts start in May,” said a bunker supplier quoted by the energy news provider Platts.

Sources said as much as 40% of fuel oil production could be switched to asphalt as warmer weather encouraged road maintenance and building programmes.

Platts quoted an Antwerp bunker supplier as saying that ExxonMobil refinery in the Belgian port had already begun to increase its asphalt runs.