Prices in East of Suez ports have moved in mixed directions, while availability of VLSFO and LSMGO is stable across Taiwanese ports.

IMAGE: Illuminated Kaohsiung city and harbor at night, Taiwan. Getty Images

Changes on the day to 17.00 SGT (09.00 GMT) today:

• VLSFO prices up in Singapore ($1/mt), and down in Zhoushan ($4/mt) and Fujairah ($2/mt)
• LSMGO prices up in Fujairah ($7/mt), Singapore and Zhoushan ($2/mt)
• HSFO prices up in Singapore ($1/mt), and down in Fujairah and Zhoushan ($3/mt)
• B24-VLSFO at a $244/mt premium over VLSFO in Singapore
• B24-VLSFO at a $256/mt premium over VLSFO in Fujairah

Bunker prices across all grades have risen in Singapore in the past day. The port’s HSFO price has edged up, supported by a higher-priced non-prompt stem fixed at the port. The benchmark currently stands at discounts of $5/mt and $27/mt to Fujairah and Zhoushan, respectively.

In Zhoushan, HSFO and VLSFO prices have decreased some in the past day, while its LSMGO price has climbed higher. Bunker demand in Zhoushan remains sluggish due to the Golden Week holidays (1–8 October).

Meanwhile, in Taiwan, bunker supply is said to be stable. VLSFO and LSMGO deliveries can typically be arranged within two days in Keelung and Hualien, while up to four days are required for deliveries in Taichung and Kaohsiung.

Brent
The front-month ICE Brent contract has edged lower by $0.45/bbl on the day, to trade at $64.99/bbl at 17.00 SGT (09.00 GMT).

Upward pressure:

Several market experts have suggested that China’s stockpiling of crude oil, both into commercial and strategic storage, amid ongoing US-China trade tensions could help limit severe downside for Brent in the near-term.

“China plans to purchase 140 million barrels for storage between July 2025 and March 2026, according to people familiar with the matter, and will have an additional 200 million barrels of storage capacity ready by the end of 2026,” Amena Bakr, head of Middle East energy and OPEC+ research at Kpler, wrote in a column last month.

Her outlook aligns with recent assessments by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and JPMorgan, both of which project resilient Chinese demand through 2026.

“The world has a lot less spare capacity than previously thought,” said Eric Nuttall, a hedge fund manager specialising in energy, echoing Price Futures Group's senior analyst Phil Flynn’s view that global inventories will remain tight in the near future.

Nuttall added that US shale production has reached its “twilight,” almost in line with Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) September forecast of US crude output at 13.3 million b/d in 2026, slightly below the 2025 projection of 13.4 million b/d.

Downward pressure:

Oil glut fears have managed to push Brent down, even as some market participants have attempted to calm worries ahead of Sunday's OPEC+ meeting.

OPEC+ has selectively dismissed reports of a potential 500,000 b/d output hike, but not denied suggestions of a smaller 137,000 b/d increase in November — possibly hinting that it could still be on the table on Sunday. Kpler’s base case has already factored in this increment, Bakr noted yesterday.

Iraq has also announced plans to raise domestic oil production from 4.4 million b/d to 5.5 million b/d by the end of this year.

In September, the EIA forecast Brent’s price to fall to around $59/bbl in the fourth quarter of 2025 and further to $56/bbl in 2026, largely on the back of higher OPEC+ output.

The agency has also projected global oil inventories to average over 2 million b/d from the third quarter of 2025 through the first quarter of 2026.

By Shilpa Sharma and Konica Bhatt

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