- Large gasoil shipments are heading for Yemen.
- India and China are sending gasoline to the Middle East.
- There is an unexpected refinery outage in Oman.
A recent news article published in the Platts written by Claudia Carpenter and Mark Tan reveals that refined product stocks climb to 4-week high on fuel oil rebound.
Stockpiles of oil products
Stockpiles of oil products at the UAE’s Fujairah port climbed to a four-week high after heavy distillates rebounded from a two-year low.
The total was 19.287 million barrels as of March 29, up 9.1% from a week earlier and the highest since March 1, according to Fujairah Oil Industry Zone data released exclusively to S&P Global Platts on March 31.
Fuel oil for marine bunkers and power generation stood at 8.236 million barrels as of March 29, up 16% from a week earlier when it stood at a two-year low of 7.115 million barrels.
Fujairah was set to export 1.077 million barrels of high sulfur fuel oil in the week started March 22, the lowest since Nov. 30, according to Kpler. Almost all of the HSFO was headed for Singapore.
Middle distillate stocks
Middle distillate stocks including gasoil, diesel, jet fuel, kerosene and marine bunker gasoil stood at 3.523 million barrels as of March 29, down 3.6% from a week earlier, at a two-week low. Some 430,000 barrels of gasoil were headed for Yemen in the week started March 15, the biggest shipment to that country since Sept. 21, according to Kpler.
Light distillate stocks including naphtha and gasoline rose to 7.528 million barrels as of March 29, the most in two weeks and up 8.9% from a week earlier.
Traders pulling cargoes of light distillates
Traders are pulling cargoes of light distillates from India and China to the Middle East because of a weak East-West gasoline spread, with prices more favorable outside of Asia, a market source said.
More than five long-range tankers with a capacity of around 60,000 mt each have been scheduled to move gasoline to Middle East ports this month, after being loaded from ports in India and China, traders said.
The East-West gasoline spread, a measure between European and Asian gasoline prices, has plunged since late February when the cold blast in Texas shut some refineries and helped to boost US gasoline prices.
More gasoline may be needed from Fujairah after an unexpected outage at Oman’s 198,000 b/d Sohar refinery.
According to trading sources, the outage affected the refinery’s gasoline refining units, tightening supplies in the region. The company declined to give an official comment when contacted by Platts.
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Source: Platts
