Singapore fuel oil stocks rise to highest since June, net imports fall

SINGAPORE, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Singapore residual fuel oil inventories climbed to their highest since June in the week ended Dec. 4, despite lower residual fuel net import volumes into the oil trading and storage hub, official data showed on Thursday. - Onshore fuel oil stocks rose by 336,000 barrels (about 53,000 tonnes), or 2%, from the previous week to 22.12 million barrels, or 3.483 million tonnes, data from Enterprise Singapore showed. - Singapore fuel oil stocks were last higher in the week to June 26 at 22.837 million barrels, or 3.596 million tonnes. - This came despite lower weekly net fuel oil import volumes which fell 40% to a 10-week low of 405,000 tonnes and were below the 2019 weekly average of 678,000 tonnes. Weekly figures are volatile. - Onshore fuel oil inventories were up 12% compared with a year ago. - Singapore's fuel oil net exports to China were 153,000 tonnes for the week, a more than seven-month high, followed by New Caledonia with 55,000 tonnes and Vietnam with 21,000 tonnes. - The largest net imports into Singapore originated from Malaysia at 373,000 tonnes, followed by Bahrain at 85,000 tonnes, Malta with 66,000 tonnes and South Korea with 42,000 tonnes. - Singapore imports from Saudi Arabia, a typical exporter of fuel oil outside of the summer months, remained absent for a sixth straight week. Similarly, imports from Russia were absent for a second consecutive week. - So far this year, fuel oil inventories in Singapore averaged 21.12 million barrels a week, or 3.326 million tonnes, compared with 18.93 million barrels, or 2.981 million tonnes, last year. Dec 4 Total Imports Total Exports Net Imports Fuel oil (in tonnes) AUSTRALIA 7,010 0 7,010 BAHRAIN 84,849 0 84,849 BANGLADESH 0 19,580 -19,580 BRAZIL 14,612 0 14,612 BRUNEI 0 1 -1 CAMBODIA 0 5,717 -5,717 CANADA 2 0 2 CHINA 0 153,250 -153,250 HONG KONG 0 14,972 -14,972 INDIA 22,467 483 21,984 INDONESIA 15,043 0 15,043 JAPAN 28,964 0 28,964 KOREA, REP OF 41,955 0 41,955 MALAYSIA 476,596 103,211 373,385 MALTA 66,205 0 66,205 NEW CALEDONIA 0 55,179 -55,179 NORWAY 0 0 0 TAIWAN 1 0 1 THAILAND 20,939 0 20,939 VIETNAM 0 21,228 -21,228 TOTAL 778,642 373,621 405,021 (Reporting by Roslan Khasawneh; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)