As of Monday, May 20 total oil product stocks in Fujairah stood at 23.923 million barrels adding 91,000 barrels week on week. Overall product stocks rose by 0.4% barrels with a fall in light distillate stocks and a build in residual stocks largely offsetting each other to leave overall stock levels largely unchanged.
Stocks of light distillates fell by 406,000 barrels reflecting a fall of 3.9% week on week. Total volumes stood at 10.054 million barrels, the lowest level since the end of 2018 when they stood at 9.669 million barrels on December 31. Market sentiment East of Suez was focusing on the potential of higher supply going forward despite the uptick in gasoline cracks seen in recent days, led by strength in the US and European gasoline markets. “Most of the strength is coming from the West with RBOB and Eurobob cracks still being healthy,” a trader said. The 92 RON physical gasoline crack to front month ICE Brent futures stood at $5.04/b on Tuesday, reflecting a rise of $0.53/b week on week, holding under the average crack of $7.25/b seen in April.
Stocks of middle distillates rose by 1.8% adding 41,000 barrels to stand at 2.322 million barrels at the start of the week. Sentiment in the Asian gasoil market was seen to be balanced with turnarounds and arbitrage movements to Europe keeping prices in Asia and the Middle East supported, industry sources said. “Most of the strength [in Asia] last week was led by news of European refineries going into turnarounds amid the Russian crude contamination incident,” a source said.
Stocks of heavy distillates rose 4.1%, rising by 456,000 barrels on the week to stand at 11.547 million barrels. In Fujairah, bunker demand was better than average, said traders. Fujairah delivered 380 CST bunkers were assessed at $426.60/mt on Tuesday, this placed them at a $6.60/mt premium to Singapore delivered 380 CST bunkers on the day.
