Singapore fuel oil stocks climb as weekly net imports rise

By Matthew Chye SINGAPORE, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Residual fuel oil stocks at key trading hub Singapore climbed by 7% week-on-week to hit a six-week high amid a rise in weekly net imports, official data showed on Thursday. Onshore fuel oil stocks were at 21.40 million barrels (3.37 million tonnes) in the week ended Dec. 21, climbing to a six-week high, Enterprise Singapore data showed. The build in weekly inventory levels came in line with an uptick in net fuel oil imports, which rose by 8% to 494,000 tonnes. Top net fuel oil import volumes into Singapore continued to come from Malaysia at 197,000 tonnes, followed by the United Arab Emirates at 148,000 tonnes, and Russia at 92,000 tonnes. Meanwhile, top destinations for fuel oil net exports out of Singapore were China at 100,000 tonnes, Hong Kong at 84,000 tonnes and the United States at 31,000 tonnes, the Enterprise Singapore data showed. December fuel oil flows into East Asia, most of which are bound for Singapore, are notionally assessed at a 14-month high of 5.86 million metric tonnes (mt), up 40% on-month, propped by 22-month high West arbitrage flows comprising of mostly Russia-origin barrels, Refinitiv Oil Research said this week. Dec 21, Fuel oil (in tonnes) Total Imports Total Exports Net Imports ALGERIA 35,809 0 35,809 BANGLADESH 0 25,020 -25,020 BRAZIL 50,145 0 50,145 BRUNEI 9,974 0 9,974 CHINA 0 99,898 -99,898 CYPRUS 23,544 0 23,544 GUAM 0 29,894 -29,894 HONG KONG 0 83,929 -83,929 INDIA 200 90 110 INDONESIA 16,687 0 16,687 ITALY 41,006 0 41,006 KAZAKHSTAN 8,474 0 8,474 KENYA 0 11,496 -11,496 KOREA, REP OF 34,096 0 34,096 MADAGASCAR 0 16,998 -16,998 MALAYSIA 237,614 40,237 197,377 MALTA 26,587 0 26,587 NEPAL 0 42 -42 NEW CALEDONIA 0 6,105 -6,105 RUSSIA 91,568 0 91,568 SOUTH AFRICA 0 17,686 -17,686 SOUTH SUDAN 36,014 0 36,014 THAILAND 31,365 0 31,365 TURKMENISTAN 71,851 0 71,851 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 147,899 0 147,899 UNITED STATES 0 31,086 -31,086 VIET NAM 0 5,875 -5,875 TOTAL 862,833 368,356 494,477 (Data from Enterprise Singapore) (Reporting by Matthew Chye; Editing by Toby Chopra)