Cash discounts for high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) widened in Asia on Tuesday as the region remains well supplied, with spot offers for the 380-cst grade sliding compared to the previous day.

The Singapore cash differential softened to a discount of $5.88 a metric ton, while refining margins dipped to discounts of about $13.50 a barrel.

Fuel oil supplies from the Middle East to Asia breached 2 million tons in February, firming from January levels which were at about 1.5 million tons, based on LSEG ship-tracking data.

Meanwhile, price benchmarks for very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) were little changed in the absence of fresh drivers.

In tenders, South Korea’s S-Oil offered 20,000 tons of slurry for loading in early March, closing on Wednesday.

There was a recent fire at the refinery, though this had limited impact on refined product markets, said sources.

OTHER NEWS

– Oil prices on Tuesday mostly held onto gains made a day earlier amid attacks on shipping in the Red Sea that have exacerbated supply worries.

– A bottleneck of vessels waiting to load crude and fuel in Venezuela has increased in recent weeks as state-run oil firm PDVSA struggles to deliver cargoes on time, according to people familiar with the matter, documents and shipping data.

– Mexican state energy company Pemex upped production in its six domestic refineries by double-digit rates in January, its latest data showed, although this also yielded high levels of dirty fuel oil.

– Russia on Tuesday announced a six-month ban on gasoline exports from March 1 to compensate for rising demand from consumers and farmers and to allow for planned maintenance of refineries.

WINDOW TRADES O/AS

– 180-cst HSFO: No trade
– 380-cst HSFO: No trade
– 0.5% VLSFO: No trade

Source: Reuters reported by Jeslyn Lerh and edited by Shilpi Majumdar