Most fuel prices have decreased in European and African ports, while prompt supply of all fuel grades remains tight in Las Palmas.

IMAGE: Ships docked in the Port of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain. Getty Images

Changes on the day to 09.00 GMT today:

• VLSFO prices up in Durban ($5/mt), and down in Rotterdam ($10/mt) and Gibraltar ($7/mt)
• LSMGO prices down in Rotterdam ($19/mt) and Gibraltar ($12/mt)
• HSFO prices down in Gibraltar ($5/mt), Rotterdam and Durban ($2/mt)
• Rotterdam B30-VLSFO premium over VLSFO up by $26/mt to $359/mt
• Gibraltar B30-VLSFO premium over VLSFO down by $3/mt to $390/mt

Fuel prices in the three major ports have mostly moved lower in the past day, tracking Brent's decline.

Durban’s VLSFO price is an exception, gaining $5/mt over the last day. Conversely, Gibraltar’s VLSFO price has slid $7/mt, widening the South African port’s premium over the Mediterranean port's price by $12/mt.

Meanwhile, LSMGO prices in Las Palmas have fallen much more sharply than in Gibraltar, bringing the port’s LSMGO price to a $10/mt discount to Gibraltar’s, after being at parity yesterday.

A significantly lower-priced 150-500 mt LSMGO stem fixed at $711/mt in the Canary Islands bunkering hub may have put additional downward pressure on the price.

Fuel availability remains tight in Las Palmas for prompt delivery, with a lead time of around a week or more advised for all fuel types, a trader told ENGINE.

Higher swells of close to 2 meters are forecast in Las Palmas between 8-9 October, which may disrupt bunkering in the area.

Brent

The front-month ICE Brent contract has declined by $0.28/bbl on the day, to trade at $65.30/bbl at 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 Nachiket Tekawade and Aparupa Mazumder

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