Singapore's onshore stocks of oil products continued on a downward trend to a six-week low, driven by a drop in light distillate and fuel oil stocks.
Overall oil product inventories dipped by 0.73pc on the week to 44.62mn bl in the week to 8 March, latest data from Enterprise Singapore show. Stocks were last lower in the week to 25 January at 44.18mn bl.
Singapore light distillate inventories plunged to a two-month low in the latest week. Stock levels fell by 1.593mn bl to 15.552mn bl with a surge in gasoline export volumes from Singapore, for the week ending 8 March.
Singapore exported 5.16mn bl of gasoline, compared to just 2.71mn bl in the previous week. Export volumes to neighbouring countries Indonesia and Malaysia were largely stable but there were more flows to Myanmar, Pakistan, South Africa and Vietnam. Light distillate stocks drew on a spike in naphtha exports from the city-state. Singapore exported 667,800 bl of naphtha in the week to 8 March, almost nine times that of the previous week's 75,800 bl. Exports mainly went out to South Korea, with only 39,800 bl going out to Thailand.
Singapore's onshore fuel oil inventories fell by 428,000 bl to an over one-month low of 20.17mn bl. Inventories were last lower at 19.59mn bl in the week to 25 January. Singapore's fuel oil exports rose by 6pc on the week to 1.55mn bl, mostly headed to Malaysia, South Korea and New Caledonia. Imports rose to a two-week high of 5.75mn bl, mostly from Saudi Arabia, Brazil and the Netherlands.
Singapore's middle distillate stocks bucked the trend and reversed losses in the previous session, climbing back up to an over-one-month high of 8.9mn bl in the latest week. Middle distillate stocks climbed by some 1.692 mn bl, with jet fuel registering the greatest increase in imports.
Jet fuel imports more than tripled on the week to 58,200 bl from last week's 15,900 bl, with almost all of the week's supplies arriving from Malaysia. Jet fuel exports also soared in the latest week, up by about 87pc to 389,800 bl. The top three outlets for this week's jet fuel exports were Thailand, New Zealand and Malaysia again.
But gasoil stocks fell on the week by some 26pc to 1.33mn bl, with fewer incoming imports from China, which was once again the top supplier to Singapore, followed by Taiwan, South Korea and Malaysia. Exports of gasoil surged on the week by 43pc to 3.23mn bl, with more outgoing supplies headed to Malaysia, Myanmar and Australia. There were rarer exports of gasoil headed out to Namibia and South Africa in the latest week.
