Singapore oil product inventories edge up as clean distillate volumes trek higher

By Jeslyn Lerh, Trixie Yap and Mohi Narayan

SINGAPORE, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Singapore oil product inventories rose slightly over the week, government data showed on Thursday, led by higher clean distillate inventories.

Combined onshore oil product inventories at the key Asian fuel trading hub were at 38.49 million barrels in the week ended October 28, up 0.9% from the previous week, Enterprise Singapore data showed. O/SING1

Traders are expecting more Northeast Asian exports of gasoil and diesel into November following a rare fourth batch of export quotas issued by China, as well as higher volumes from South Korea.

MIDDLE, LIGHT DISTILLATES AT TWO-WEEK HIGHS

Middle distillate stocks inched up to around 8.5 million barrels versus 8.31 million barrels last week, despite rising net exports.

Diesel and gasoil net exports more than quadrupled week-on-week as imports declined 62%, outweighing a 7% decline in exports.

Imports came only from China and Thailand.

For jet fuel and kerosene, net exports rose twofold from last week due to a 14% decline in imports.

Likewise for diesel and gasoil, more exports are slated to be shipped out from Northeast Asia into the year-end.

Meanwhile, some rare exports to South America - Argentina and Mexico - emerged for both jet fuel and diesel in the week.

As for light distillates, inventories for naphtha and gasoline climbed to a two-week high of 11.304 million barrels in the week.

Total naphtha imports fell about 14% week on week to around 105,000 metric tons (about 945,000 barrels), as no shipments from Russia or India arrived.

Top supplier was Brunei at 37,000 tons, followed by Iraq at 30,000 tons. Singapore exported only 5,000 tons of naphtha in the week to Malaysia.

Meanwhile, gasoline imports more than doubled to 314,000 tons (about 2.7 million barrels) during the period, while exports tanked about 40% week on week at roughly 433,000 tons.

RESIDUAL FUELS STEADY AT 18-19 MILLION BARRELS

Residual fuel inventories hovered steadily between 18 and 19 million barrels for a fifth consecutive week, the data showed.

Stockpiles totalled 18.68 million barrels (2.94 million tons), down 0.9% from a week ago.

Total fuel oil imports climbed 19.1% to over 1.15 million tons, with Brazil leading the volumes.

Middle Eastern imports have also improved, with Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain emerging as top suppliers for the week.

Meanwhile, total fuel oil exports rose 5.0% to over 460,000 tons, with China as the top destination.