STOCKS DATA: Singapore fuel inventories regress to mean at year-end

Quantum Commodity Intelligence - Fuel oil stocks in Singapore eased off into the year-end, dropping 2% over the week to 20.9 million barrels and leaving residual fuels in line with average available volumes through the year.

Weekly data from Enterprise Singapore published Thursday showed a net 460,000 barrels in residual fuel stocks from the bunkering hub, ending the year with 20.942 million barrels available.

That left inventories down less than 1% from the start of the year, with overall fuel oil stocks fluctuating from lows of 17.1 million barrels to highs of 24.1 million barrels over the previous 12 months.

For middle distillates, there was a solid 7% build over the week, with the extra 530,000 barrels taking total stocks to a four-week high of 7.7 million barrels. That is just above a 7.6-million-barrel average seen through 2022.

Light end stocks continued to see big intra-week swings, with a 9% drop recorded in the week to 27 December. A 1.37-million-barrel draw left stocks at 14.452 million barrels, about 400,000 barrels below the average seen throughout the year.

Overall stocks in Singapore ended the week 3% lower at 43.094 million barrels, just 200,000 barrels below the average recorded through a relatively steady year for supply in the storage hub.

With a low of 38.2 million barrels and a high of 47.2 million barrels, the swing through the year was the lowest recorded in over a decade, while the average of 43.3 million barrels in storage was the lowest since 2018.