Singapore's onshore stocks of residual fuels rose 964,000 barrels in the week ended June 9 to 13.495 million barrels, the highest level in more than five years, International Enterprise (IE) data showed on Thursday.
Tepid demand from China, Asia's top buyer of fuel oil, was the dominant cause for swelling stocks, traders said.
"There is not much lifting in June for cargoes to go to China as the players are making losses as high as $10 a tonne," a Singapore-based trader said.
The Singapore market was also pressured by inflows of Western fuel oil, traders said.
"These are all the arb cargoes coming in, mainly from Europe but a couple from the US Gulf and Venezuela too," said a trader with an oil major.
The data showed fuel oil stocks were 37 percent above year-ago levels and at the highest since March 1999, when they stood at 13.528 million barrels.
Singapore exports about 30 percent of its fuel oil stocks to China, traders said.
Onshore stocks of middle distillates rose 923,000 barrels in the same period to 6.928 million barrels, IE data showed.
Weekly naphtha and gasoline stocks were up 516,000 barrels to 8.701 million barrels.
IE tracks the voluntary reporting of onshore oil product inventories held by nine or 10 major oil companies and oil storage firms.
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