Singapore fuel oil benchmarks were rangebound on Thursday, while onshore inventories recovered for a third straight week.

Cracks for the low-sulphur (VLSFO) market held stable above $8 a barrel, though trade sources continued to eye the weakness in gasoline margins.

Meanwhile, high-sulphur 380-cst (HSFO) cracks hovered at discounts of about $6 a barrel.
Spot benchmarks were largely rangebound in recent trading sessions, capped by incoming supply replenishment, according to sources.

Onshore fuel oil stockpiles in Singapore rose for a third straight week, led by recovering net imports, which more than tripled from last week.

In tenders, Kuwait’s KPC sold about 70,000 metric tons of 380-cst HSFO for loading between June 26 and 27, according to trade sources.

INVENTORY DATA

– Singapore inventories climbed 1.6% to 19.16 million barrels (3.02 million metric tons) in the week ended June 12, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

OTHER NEWS

– Oil prices fell on Thursday as investors digested news that the U.S. Federal Reserve had likely pushed back an interest rate cut possibly to December, while ample U.S. crude and fuel stocks also weighed on the market.

– U.S. oil refiners and West Coast traders are flagging concerns about the quality of crude shipped on the newly completed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, warning that high vapor pressure and acidity limits could deter purchases of Canadian heavy barrels.

– Russian naphtha shipments to South Korea have slowed amid a probe by the country into whether fuel from Russia has been mislabelled as supply from places where cargoes have been transshipped, according to trade sources and shipping data.

– Singapore’s Temasek Holdings is finalising the sale of some assets from liquefied natural gas trading firm Pavilion Energy to Shell with a deal set to be completed in the coming days, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

WINDOW TRADES

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

Source: Reuters reported by Jeslyn Lerh and edited by Tasim Zahid