Singapore reports record high marine fuel sales for month of February

SINGAPORE: Singapore sold a total of 4.136 million tonnes of marine fuels in February, the highest ever for the shortest month of the year, official data showed.

February sales were 7.5 percent higher than a year earlier but down 10.2 percent from a month ago, data from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) showed.

In January, sales of marine fuels, also known as bunkers, rose to a monthly record of 4.606 million tonnes in the world's largest bunkering hub.

The number of vessels that called at Singapore for bunkers fell by 4 percent from last year to 3,094 ships, the lowest since February 2015, MPA data showed.

However, vessels calling at Singapore for bunkers continued to load larger quantities of fuel with each ship taking on an average 1,340 tonnes of fuel in February, well above the average of 1,240 tonnes loaded by vessels in 2017 and slightly higher from the 1,330 tonne average in January.

The elevated sales volumes for February came amid falling crude oil prices, which dragged the cost of the benchmark 380-centistoke (cst) marine fuel oil to a near two-month low by Feb. 14.

Singapore became the world's first port to mandate the use of mass-flow-meters (MFM) at the start of 2017 and set a record 50.6 million tonnes of marine fuels sales in the year.

FUEL TYPES

Sales of the 380-cst high-sulphur fuel oil fell to 2.916 million tonnes in February, the lowest since June. Sales of the mainstay fuel were just 0.1 percent lower than a year earlier, but 14 percent down from the previous month.

By contrast, sales of the less costly high-viscosity 500-cst marine fuel were at 959,000 tonnes, their highest on record after 980,000 tonnes in January. Compared with year-ago levels, sales were up 35 percent.

Sales of Emission Control Areas (ECA)-compliant low-sulphur marine gas oil climbed to a record 128,000 tonnes in February, up 11 percent from January and 25 percent from last year.

Sales of the lower-viscosity 180-cst fuel were at 32,000 tonnes, up 10 percent from last month and 9 percent from a year earlier.