Some 31 vessels, carrying 1.75 million metric tons of aviation fuel, have been spotted heading for Europe in May.

The volume is around 120,000 tons higher than seen in April and is almost the same as May 2014, according to data from Eurostat, the database of the European Commission.

The bulk of the volume has been drawn from the Arab Gulf and India. But 280,000 tons is being shipped over from Singapore, with another 40,000 tons from the U.S. Gulf, according to the OPIS tanker tracker, based on information compiled from brokers, traders and satellite-tracking data.

Two of the vessels from Singapore have already arrived.

Vitol chartered the Maersk Penguin, carrying 100,000 tons of jet fuel, which discharged 30,000 tons into Fawley, U.K., on May 5, and then took the balance to Rotterdam.

Shell chartered the Mare Nostrum, carrying 90,000 tons, which is discharging in Shellhaven, U.K., today.

Another Vitol-charted vessel from Singapore, the Troviken, is carrying 90,000 tons of jet fuel from Singapore and is due to arrive May 25.

From the U.S. Gulf, the trading house chartered Glenda Melody, which loaded 40,000 tons of jet from Lake Charles and took the cargo into storage at Milford Haven, U.K., on May 6.

There has also been 30,000 tons of Russian jet imported into Europe, split between two tankers that loaded from the Baltic port of Riga and bought by Neste in Finland, where its refinery at Porvoo is undergoing maintenance.

Of the 31 vessels seen in total, 21 have either arrived or are sailing to northern Europe, carrying 1.3 million tons, while 10, carrying 438,000 tons, are destined for the Mediterranean.

The Arab Gulf accounts for 1 million tons of the imports on 16 vessels.

India accounts for 185,000 tons, arriving on three vessels.

The volume arriving is slowing from the first half of the month to the second, with just under 1 million tons shipped in so far.

Although imports are in line with typical volumes seen at this time of year, Europe is well supplied currently, and there is a wide contango in the nearby swaps curve for cargoes in the north.

Domestic supply has boosted tanks after a prolonged period of healthy refinery runs in Europe.

Crude intake into 16 main European countries increased 40,000 b/d in April from May, and was up 550,000 b/d from a year earlier, according to analysts with JBC Energy.

Europe is structurally short jet fuel, and imports are around a third of its total consumption, although the volumes arriving only account for a fifth of total demand because the region also exports some aviation fuel while some
barrels are used for blending.