SINGAPORE: The 380-cst high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) market firmed on Wednesday amid stronger bids, while Fujairah’s landed stocks for fuel oil fell to 26-week lows as Middle Eastern exports to Asia rose from the previous week.

The cash differential for 380-cst HSFO climbed by over $1 to a premium of $4.25 a tonne to Singapore quotes. Meanwhile, the cash differential for 0.5% very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) held relatively steady, at a premium of $15.01 on Wednesday.

“Players remain reluctant to take new inventories due to year-end destocking,” said Refinitiv Oil Research analysts this week.

“This is in contrast to the high-sulphur market that strengthened month-on-month due to a lack of blending components to bring the abundant Russian arrivals to specification,” they added.

Russian barrels continued to flood the Asian supply pool ahead of the European Union’s ban, while arrivals from the Middle East also climbed this month.

Residual fuel oil stocks at Fujairah fell by 18% to 10.46 million barrels (1.65 million tonnes) in the week ended Dec. 19, hitting six-month lows, showed data from the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone published by industry information service S&P Global Commodity Insights.

Oil prices were little changed in Asian trade on Wednesday as a larger-than-expected draw in US crude stocks offset worries about rising COVID-19 cases in top oil importer China.

China exported 1.23 million tonnes of very-low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) in November - down 30% from the same month a year earlier. Year-to-date exports were at 16.91 million tonnes, sliding 5% from a year earlier.

Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) and state-run GAIL (India) Ltd have signed a time charter contract for a newbuild liquefied natural gas carrier, and for joint ownership of an existing LNG carrier.