Singapore bunker or ship fuel prices were flat to lower on Friday as thin demand countered support from soaring benchmark crude.
Traders said one lot of 3,000 tonnes of 380-centistoke (cst) bunker fuel oil was heard sold at $185 a tonne, steady from Thursday, while lighter 180-cst was pegged about $3 higher than 380-cst.
"Demand is terrible because prices are too high and ship owners are taking a wait-and-see approach to the market, "one trader said.
Many Chinese ship owners stayed away for a public holiday and were not expected back in full force until next week.
Bunker market prices were underpinned by 380-cst cargoes, which traded at $182 a tonne, a 13-month high, but was under pressure from high stocks of at least three million tonnes of fuel oil due to arrive in Singapore before the middle of June.
Fresh data showed Singapore's average weekly fuel oil stocks in the five weeks from April 4-May 5 were 10.886 million barrels, a level 61 percent over stocks in the same period last year.
Marine gas oil was flat in thin trade at $330 a tonne.