East of Suez Market Update 10 Nov

Most prices in East of Suez ports have moved lower, while availability of all three grades is very tight for prompt dates in Singapore.

IMAGE: Golden Island's tanker Golden Centaurus bunkering the container ship Maersk Halifax at Pasir Panjang Terminal, Singapore. Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore

Changes on the day to 17.00 SGT (09.00 GMT) today:

• VLSFO prices up in Zhoushan ($17/mt), and down in Fujairah ($34/mt) and Singapore ($16/mt)
• LSMGO prices down in Fujairah ($72/mt), Singapore ($36/mt) and Zhoushan ($16/mt)
• HSFO prices down in Zhoushan ($39/mt), Fujairah ($37/mt) and Singapore ($28/mt)

Fujairah’s LSMGO price has fallen $72/mt, the steepest decline among the three major Asian bunker ports. The price now stands at a $345/mt premium over Singapore and a $306/mt premium over Zhoushan.

With VLSFO rising and HSFO falling, Zhoushan’s Hi5 spread has widened from $69/mt to $125/mt. It remains below Singapore’s $173/mt and Fujairah’s $231/mt.

In Singapore, recommended lead times for HSFO are 15-19 days, with very tight prompt availability and tight supply further out. VLSFO and LSMGO availability is very tight for both prompt and later dates, with recommended lead times of 15-20 days and 10-13 days respectively.

In the port, HSFO was fixed at $628/mt today for 500-1,500 mt with non-prompt delivery, which pulled the benchmark down. VLSFO was fixed at $875/mt for 500-1,500 mt, above the benchmark. Three LSMGO stems were fixed in the past 24 hours in a wide $1,226-1,280/mt range, all above the benchmark.

In Zhoushan, VLSFO was fixed at $895/mt for 500-1,500 mt, far above the benchmark at the time. Two HSFO stems were fixed in a narrow $735-736/mt range, below the benchmark at the time and below a large stem of more than 1,500 mt fixed at $756/mt in nearby Ningbo. LSMGO was fixed at $1,255/mt in Zhoushan.

Brent

The front-month ICE Brent contract has fallen by $5.95/bbl on the day, to trade at $90.59/bbl at 17.00 SGT (09.00 GMT) today.

Upward pressure:

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy confirmed an attack on the country’s East-West oil pipeline in the Medina region on 9 November. The pipeline allows Saudi Arabia to export crude oil via the Red Sea, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.

“Oil’s political sell-off masks a dangerous reality,” Kpler’s head of Middle East and OPEC+ insights, Amena Bakr, wrote in an opinion piece for Arabian Gulf Business Insight.

Despite the price decline, threats to the Middle East’s energy infrastructure, shipping routes and crude exports from the Gulf remain unchanged, Bakr noted.

Iran has ruled out transferring enriched uranium out of the country, state-owned news agency IRNA reported, citing Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei. His comments follow a report by Saudi-owned Al Arabiya that a Qatari-Pakistani mediation proposal had revived negotiations around Iran’s nuclear programme.

Downward pressure:

US President Donald Trump has suggested that the US-Israel war with Iran could end soon.

“... they are talking to us. And they are talking very politely. And we’ll see what happens. But there’s a good chance that that could get ended,” Trump said in a media briefing following talks with Qatar’s prime minister in Washington, DC.

Prospects of de-escalation and renewed diplomatic efforts over Iran’s nuclear programme have put downward pressure on Brent’s price, which has fallen around 15% over the past week, down $15.83/bbl, from $106.42/bbl.

By Erik Hoffmann and Konica Bhatt

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