Cash premiums and refining margins for fuel oil were little changed in Asia as thin activity persisted on Thursday, while onshore stocks at Singapore rose slightly in the week to Wednesday, latest data showed.

The cash premium for 0.5% very low sulphur fuel oil was pegged at $5.46 a metric ton, while cracks closed at premiums of $12.15 a barrel.

Meanwhile, 380-cst high sulphur fuel oil cash premium was pegged at $5.56 a metric ton, while cracks were at discounts of $10.52 a barrel.

Onshore inventories at Singapore edged slightly higher from last week, while top origin countries for net fuel oil imports included Brazil, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.

In tenders, Saudi’s Rabigh refinery is expected to load fuel oil amid a rare move, shipping records showed.

The refiner is expected to load three cargoes of straight-run fuel oil and one cargo of vacuum gasoil in end-December and early-January.

INVENTORIES

Singapore onshore fuel oil stocks climbed 2.6% at 21.09 million barrels (3.32 million tons) in the week to Dec. 27, based on latest data from Enterprise Singapore.

RED SEA UPDATES

Denmark’s Maersk has scheduled several dozen container vessels to travel via the Suez Canal and the Red Sea in the coming days and weeks, it said on Wednesday, in a further sign that global shipping firms are returning to the route.

OTHER NEWS

– Oil prices steadied on Thursday after falling sharply in the previous session, as concerns eased about shipping disruptions along the Red Sea route even as tensions in the Middle East continued to rise.

– Oil output in Russia, the third largest producer in the world after the United States and Saudi Arabia, is expected to be steady or even to increase next year as Moscow has largely overcome Western sanctions, analysts said.

– Qatar has agreed to supply Shell in Singapore with up to 18 million barrels of oil a year for five years in what the Gulf state’s energy company said was its first ever five-year crude sales deal.

– Adani Energy Solutions plans to spend $360 million to build a transmission line to connect a solar and wind energy park in the western Indian state of Gujarat with the power grid.

WINDOW TRADES

– 180-cst HSFO: No trade

– 380-cst HSFO: No trade

– 0.5% VLSFO: No trade

Source: Reuters reported by Jeslyn Lerh and edited by Krishna Chandra Eluri