Most prices in East of Suez ports have moved down, and prompt availability across all grades remains tight in Fujairah.

IMAGE: A large container ship passing the Suez Canal, Egypt. Getty Images

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

• VLSFO prices down in Zhoushan ($10/mt), Singapore ($8/mt) and Fujairah ($7/mt)
• LSMGO prices down in Fujairah ($13/mt), Singapore ($8/mt) and Zhoushan ($4/mt)
• HSFO prices up in Fujairah ($1/mt), and down in Singapore ($6/mt) and Zhoushan ($1/mt)
• B24-VLSFO at a $242/mt premium over VLSFO in Singapore
• B24-VLSFO at a $266/mt premium over VLSFO in Fujairah

VLSFO benchmarks across the three major Asian bunker ports have fallen by $7–10/mt in the past day. Fujairah’s VLSFO price now stands at a discount of $37/mt to Zhoushan and at near-parity with Singapore.

In contrast, Fujairah’s HSFO price has remained steady. These price movements have narrowed the port’s Hi5 spread by $8/mt to $65/mt, which is lower than Zhoushan’s $81/mt and Singapore’s $71/mt spreads.

On the supply front, prompt bunker availability in Fujairah remains tight across all grades, with recommended lead times of 5–7 days — a similar situation to that in the nearby port of Khor Fakkan.

In Iraq’s Basrah, VLSFO and LSMGO are readily available, but HSFO supply remains constrained. Meanwhile, all grades are in short supply at Egypt’s Port Suez, with stocks nearly depleted.

Brent

The front-month ICE Brent contract has declined by $0.28/bbl on the day, to trade at $65.30/bbl at 17.00 SGT (09.00 GMT).

Upward pressure:

Brent crude has gained some upward support amid persistent risks to Russian oil supplies following repeated attacks on one of its largest oil refineries.

The Kirishi oil refinery has halted operations at one of its main crude distillation units after a drone attack caused a fire on 4 October, Reuters reported.

The facility has a processing capacity of about 20 million mt/year, and recovery is expected to take around a month, Reuters reported citing two industry sources.

“In the last two months, Ukraine has attacked at least 15 Russian refineries, reducing refinery runs by over 500kb/d [500,000 b/d], with refinery throughput falling below 5mb/d [5 million b/d],” remarked ANZ Bank’s senior commodity strategist Daniel Hynes.

Downward pressure:

Oil has edged lower after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) announced another production increase for November.

Eight members of the coalition agreed to collectively increase their production by another 137,000 b/d next month.

This marks the seventh consecutive production hike, though it is significantly smaller than the monthly output increase of about 547,000 b/d in September.

“While this increase isn’t as dramatic as some industry rumors suggested, it still is another monthly hike since April—amounting to roughly 2.5 million additional barrels a day added to global supply,” Price Futures Group’s senior market analyst Phil Flynn said.

By Tuhin Roy and Aparupa Mazumder

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