Update: Singapore middle distillates stocks surge on jet fuel imports
Singapore's middle distillates stockpiles rose more than 30% from last week, as a surge of jet fuel/kerosene total imports—mainly from India—offset gains in diesel/gasoil net exports, data showed on Thursday.
Inventories of diesel/gasoil and jet fuel/kerosene at the oil storage hub climbed to 11.145 MMbbl for the week ended July 17 from 8.454 MMbbl the previous week.
The city-state was a net importer of jet fuel/kerosene for the week, as least 60,000 metric t of the fuel arrived from India and imports from China remained firm. This is the first time in more than a year that Indian cargoes have arrived into Singapore, the data showed.
Volumes have mostly been sporadic as it is usually more lucrative for India's refiners to sell their spot cargoes into the west of Suez markets, two trade sources said.
Traders will only consider shipping to Singapore if freight costs are cheaper or there is extra regional distribution demand, the sources added.
This cargo arrival was likely from Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals, Kpler and LSEG shiptracking data showed.
So far, no more jet fuel cargoes from India are slated to arrive into Singapore for July, the data showed.
Meanwhile, more jet fuel cargoes are likely to arrive into Singapore from China in the next few weeks as key oil majors continue their export momentum given the lucrative margins since the start of this year.
Net diesel/gasoil exports rose slightly more than 40% week-on-week, though total imports rose by a quicker pace than total exports mainly due to the surge in South Korea-origin arrivals.
Total exports remained buoyed by robust export volumes to Indonesia and Australia, in line with earlier expectations of some demand replenishment there because of lower refining runs.
However, there were some trader expectations that demand could taper off starting
August and September after some refineries resume operations.
(1 ton = around 7.45 bbl for gasoil)
(1 ton = around 7.88 bbl for jet fuel/kerosene)
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