Onshore fuel oil stockpiles at key trading hub Singapore climbed for a fourth consecutive week as imports remained strong, data showed on Thursday.
Residual fuel inventories were at 23.71 million barrels (about 3.73 million tonnes) in the week to June 11, up five per cent from the previous week, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.
The inventory levels have been holding above typical weekly averages of 20 million barrels for four weeks.
High supplies to the Asia region have kept the inventories buoyed. Fuel oil imports into Singapore onshore tanks climbed three per cent from the previous week, reaching about 784,000 tons.
Most of the week's imports hailed from Nigeria, Russia and Mexico, the data showed.
Meanwhile, exports out of the tanks totalled about 403,000 tons, up 21 per cent week-on-week. The cargoes mostly ended up in China, the Philippines and South Korea.
The high inventories have weighed on the spot market, with downstream bunker differentials for high-sulphur marine fuel sinking into discounts to fuel oil cargo quotes.
(Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)