Statistics from Singapore’s International Enterprise last week showed onshore stocks of fuel oil at an eight-week high of 22.168 million barrels, up 2.4% from the previous week’s level.
Since the start of February, Chinese demand has dwindled and exports to Japan and Korea fell as warm weather conditions in both countries reduced the need for fuel.
For the past three months, Singapore’s onshore fuel oil stocks have averaged 21.333 million barrels, about 3.91% lower than last week’s 22.168 million barrels.
Last week’s stockpiles accounted for about 63.34% of a total of around 35 million barrels of storage capacity for fuel oil in Singapore.
Strong bunker fuel demand in Singapore is expected to continue to soak up the burgeoning onshore fuel oil stocks.
Singapore bunker sales in January were recorded at 3.21 million metric tonnes (mt), the second highest monthly sales since May 2009.