SINGAPORE: Asia’s cash premiums for 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) dropped for a fourth consecutive session on Friday, weighed down by muted buying interests in the physical market, while refining margins for the marine fuel grade inched up as crude prices eased.

Cash differentials for Asia’s 0.5% VLSFO were at a premium of $21.69 a tonne to Singapore quotes, compared with $22.61 per barrel a day earlier.

The premiums have shed nearly 11% this week, the first weekly drop in three, after having touched an over two-year high of $24.75 on Monday.

The front-month VLSFO crack edged higher to $24.57 per barrel against Dubai crude during Asian trade on Friday, up from $24.38 a barrel on Thursday.

Asia’s cash premiums for 380-cst high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) slipped to $9.97 per tonne to Singapore quotes on Friday, compared with $10.98 per tonne a day earlier.

Fuel oil stocks held independently in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub dropped 5.1% to 979,000 tonnes in the week to March 24, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

The data showed ARA gasoil inventories rose 2.4% to 1.6 million tonnes.

No high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) deals, no VLSFO trades. Oil prices slipped on Friday, with some supply concerns easing on expectations that crude exports would resume from Kazakhstan’s CPC terminal, while the European Union remained split on whether to impose an oil embargo on Russia.

OPEC officials believe a possible European Union ban on oil from its partner Russia would hurt consumers and the group has conveyed its concerns to Brussels, OPEC sources said.