SINGAPORE: Asia’s 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) cash premium rose to a 1-1/2-month high of $1.58 a tonne to Singapore quotes on Thursday, buoyed by continued buying interest for physical cargoes of the fuel in the Singapore trading window.

The VLSFO market has firmed over the past week amid a dip in expected prompt arbitrage arrivals but further upside may be limited as inflows rebound in the near term, trade sources said.

Meanwhile, a jump in net import volumes helped lift Singapore residual fuel oil inventories to their highest in more than four months in the week ended April 14, up 1.4% on-week and notching a third straight weekly gain, official data showed on Thursday.

Onshore fuel oil stocks climbed by 337,000 barrels, or about 53,000 tonnes, to 23.958 million barrels, or 3.773 million tonnes, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

Compared with last year, Singapore’s residual fuel stocks were 2% lower in the week ended Wednesday.

The higher inventories came as fuel oil net imports jumped 69% in the week ended April 14 to an eight-month high of 1.175 million tonnes and were above the 2021 weekly average of 824,000 tonnes, the data showed.