Residual fuel oil stocks at key trading hub Singapore fell to six-week lows in the week to Aug. 30, official data showed on Thursday, driven by a fall in net imports.

Onshore fuel oil stocks eased 10%to 19.92 million barrels (3.14 million metric tons), data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

Weekly net imports, calculated by subtracting total exports from total imports, dipped 7% at 551,000 metric tons.

Brazil was the top origin for Singapore’s fuel oil net imports at 131,000 tons, more than doubling from last week.

This was followed by the United Arab Emirates, with net imports at 103,000 tons, though the volume declined from the previous week.

Middle Eastern supplies to Asia cooled after the high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) market softened.

Singapore’s HSFO market weakened in the previous week, with the cash differential FO380-SIN-DIF sliding to single-digit premiums per ton, versus about $30 per ton in early August.

September fuel oil supplies from the Middle East to Asia are pegged below 1 million tons as of this week, Refinitiv ship-tracking data showed, though more loadings are expected to emerge in the coming weeks.

Supplies from the Middle East hit about 2 million tons in August and September respectively, the ship-tracking data showed, as a strong high-sulphur market drew barrels to Asia.

Meanwhile, most of Singapore’s fuel oil exports landed up in China, Philippines and Bangladesh in the week to Aug. 30, showed Enterprise Singapore data.

Source: Reuters reported by Jeslyn Lerh and edited by Miral Fahmy