FUJAIRAH DATA: Oil products stocks climb to 8-month high as fuel oil surges

Oil products inventories at the UAE's Port of Fujairah climbed 10% in the week ended Feb. 10, led by a 25% increase in fuel oils used for power generation and shipping, according to Fujairah Oil Industry Zone data published Feb. 12.

The stocks rose to 20.245 million barrels, the highest in eight months, according to the FOIZ data from its Fujairah Energy Data Committee, or FEDCom.

Heavy distillates used as fuel oils ended at 10.225 million barrels, also an eight-month high, as per the FOIZ data compiled by S&P Global Commodity Insights since 2017.

Light distillates such as gasoline and naphtha increased 1.5% to 8.461 million barrels, holding at the highest level since April 2023, while middle distillates such as jet fuel and diesel dropped 15% to 1.559 million barrels, the lowest in four months.

For ship fuel demand at the port, there has been little improvement since the Lunar New Year holidays in China ended Feb. 4, traders said.

Windy conditions led to loading delays for most of the week, resulting in higher inventories, local bunker suppliers said. The backlog to fill the orders is expected to clear up in the next few days, they added.

The Platts-assessed Fujairah-delivered 380 CST high sulfur fuel oil bunker premium to fuel oil 380 CST 3.5%S FOB Arab Gulf cargoes averaged $24.37/mt in February, up from $17.07/mt in January. Platts is part of S&P Global Commodity Insights. It was $22.72/mt on Feb. 11, down from a 10-week high of $27.69/mt on Feb. 4.

The Platts-assessed Fujairah-delivered marine fuel 0.5% sulfur bunker premium over benchmark FOB Singapore marine fuel 0.5%S cargo averaged $6.70/mt this month, up from $6/mt in January.

Iran leads

Total products exports from Fujairah averaged 261,000 b/d in the week started Feb. 3, down from 414,000 b/d in the prior week, Kpler data show. Pakistan and Yemen were the only known destination countries and gasoline was the leading export followed by fuel oils.

Refined products imports averaged 708,000 b/d in the latest week, consisting of fuel oils, gasoline, naphtha and diesel, little changed from 709,000 b/d the week before, according to the data. Iran was the leading origin country for the week, at 305,000 b/d, followed by Iraq, India, Russia, the Netherlands and Bahrain.