Asia spot premiums for very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) eased further on Wednesday, while the market eyed several sales tenders for residual fuels from regional refiners.

Singapore cash differential for VLSFO fell below $9 a metric ton as offers softened day-on-day.

In its regular monthly tender, Thailand’s PTT offered 50,000 tons of VLSFO for loading between June 23 and 25, according to industry sources.

Separately, Taiwan’s CPC offered 38,000 tons of catalyst fractionator bottoms for loading between June 6 and 10, while South Korea’s S-Oil offered two cargoes of slurry from Onsan, each 25,000 tons, for different loading dates in June.

Margins for VLSFO were largely rangebound, with prompt cracks closing at premiums near $12 a barrel. (LFO05SGBRTCMc1)

Meanwhile, high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) cracks rebounded after two days of declines. Singapore 380-cst HSFO/Brent cracks (FO380BRTCKMc1) closed higher at premiums of about $3 a barrel, with volatile swings expected to persist in the near term.

INVENTORY DATA

– Fujairah heavy fuel inventories (FUJHD04) fell 12.7% to 9.60 million barrels (1.51 million tons) in the week to May 26, showed FOIZ data published by S&P Global Commodity Insights.

OTHER NEWS

– Oil prices held steady on Wednesday after the U.S. barred Chevron from exporting crude from Venezuela, but an expected decision from OPEC+ later this week to increase production in July capped gains.
– Saudi Arabia may cut its crude prices for Asian buyers in July to the lowest in six months, refiners said, tracking losses in benchmark prices driven by rising supply from OPEC+.

– Gazprom said it had put a business centre near Moscow that housed its offices up for sale for a starting price of 10.34 billion roubles ($129 million).

– Eni has entered exclusive talks to sell a 49.99% stake in its carbon capture, utilisation and storage business to BlackRock’s BLK infrastructure fund GIP, the Italian energy group said.

WINDOW TRADES

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

Source: Reuters