Oil markets edged back from highs last reached in late 2014 as ample supplies weighed, but prices were underpinned by worries over military escalation in Syria and trade tensions between the United States and China.

INVENTORIES

- Singapore weekly onshore fuel oil inventories fell 0.1 percent, or 14,000 barrels (about 2,000 tonnes), to a 13-week low of 19.692 million barrels (about 2.939 million tonnes) in the week ended April 11, data from International Enterprise (IE) Singapore showed on Thursday.

- This came despite weekly net imports of fuel oil into Singapore surging 73 percent from the week before to a three-week high of 825,000 tonnes, the data showed.

- Singapore fuel oil inventories were last lower in the week to Jan. 10 when they sank to a seven-month low of 19.66 million barrels (2.934 million tonnes).

- Compared with year-ago levels, the latest onshore fuel oil inventories were 19 percent lower.

- Singapore's net exports of fuel oil to China topped the week to April 11 at 100,000 tonnes, followed by Indonesia with 53,000 tonnes and Bangladesh with 41,000 tonnes, the data showed.

- The largest net imports into Singapore originated from Russia at 348,000 tonnes, followed by Malaysia at 153,000 tonnes, the Netherlands at 136,000 tonnes and Iraq at 129,000 tonnes, according to the latest data.

- Fuel oil imports into Singapore from Venezuela were absent for an eighth consecutive week, the longest absence in at least two years, while imports from the United States were at a 10-week high.