Fujairah: Oil product stocks up 7.9% on week

Fujairah’s commercial stocks of refined oil products rose 7.9% to 17.278 million barrels in the week to Monday, October 16, having sunk to a near nine-month low the previous week, as a number of petrol cargoes arrived at the port, according to data from the Fujairah Energy Data Committee (FEDCom).
The overall rise was largely due to an increase in light distillates, which rose by 25.6% week on week to 5.72 million barrels.
The petrol market is bullish East of Suez, while a closed arbitrage to the US is likely to make more European petrol available to the Middle East, according to Platts Analytics.
While light distillate stocks jumped, stocks of middle distillates fell back 2.5% to 2.884 million barrels, and staying below 3 million barrels for a fifth week in a row. This is after rising nearly 20% last week.
The latest drop comes as Europe continued to draw in gasoil volumes from India and the Middle East on an open arbitrage. The east-west gasoil exchange of futures for swaps fell to a two-week low of minus $27.34/mt on Wednesday, mainly on a renewed tightening in the European market.
Stocks of heavy distillates and residues in Fujairah edged up 2% to 8.674 million barrels, but this is still well below the average of 10.49 million barrels since the start of the year after large draws in recent weeks.
Bunker demand has been reported as healthy, and this is expected to be supported by a seasonal rise in global refining this quarter, prompting a rise in regional crude and product tanker traffic.