European and African bunker prices have ticked up alongside Brent, and Algoa Bay bunkering has been suspended since yesterday.
Changes on the day to 08.00 GMT today:
- VLSFO prices up in Gibraltar and Durban ($4/mt), and down in Rotterdam ($1/mt)
- LSMGO prices up in Rotterdam ($6/mt), Gibraltar and Durban ($3/mt)
- HSFO prices up in Gibraltar ($4/mt) and Rotterdam ($1/mt)
Bunker prices have been rangebound in Europe’s main bunkering hubs in the past day. VLSFO prices hover around similar levels in Rotterdam and Antwerp as in Skaw and Gothenburg. Gibraltar and Algeciras price the fuel grade at similar levels to Las Palmas and Malta.
St. Petersburg and Ust-Luga have been pricing VLSFO at wide discounts to other northern European ports this month. Their discounts to Rotterdam peaked at $60/mt yesterday, before narrowing to $50/mt today.
There is no bunker congestion in the Gibraltar Strait ports this morning amid calm weather, port agent MH Bland says.
Bunkering has been halted by strong winds in Algoa Bay and adjacent Port Elizabeth since yesterday. Shipping agent Sturrock Grindrod expects bunkering to resume with calmer weather at 14.00 local time (12.00 GMT) today.
The weather disruptions have delayed three vessels from bunkering in Algoa Bay. Another four vessels are due to arrive at the anchorage today, and seven vessels on Thursday and Friday.
Strong winds and high swell is forecast again from Saturday 18 September.
“Bunker operations to be negatively affected during this period and an additional backlog of supplies are foreseeable,” Sturrock Grindrod says.
Port Elizabeth’s VLSFO price rose to wide premiums over other South African ports at the start of the month. It remains $44/mt above Durban’s price, and $26-27/mt above prices in Richards Bay and Cape Town today.
Brent
Front-month ICE Brent is broadly steady on the day, edging up by $0.20/bbl to $74.30/bbl at 08.00 GMT.
Brent is trading around six-week highs amid support from American Petroleum Institute (API) figures showing the biggest weekly US crude stock draw since early July. 5.44 million bbls of crude was drawn out of US storage tanks in the week to 10 September.
Stocks came down as 66% of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico were still shut in on 10 September, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Most of the Gulf’s platforms and rigs were evacuated in preparation for Hurricane Ida’s strike over two weeks ago.
All the rigs, and all but 7% of the platforms, had been manned again yesterday, to bring the share of shut in production down to 40%.
Official US crude oil and oil products inventory figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) will be released today at 14.30 GMT.
“The EIA is expected to report that stockpiles shed 2.7 million barrels last week. Leading API data put the drawdown at a heftier 5.4 million yesterday. Crude prices may get a lift if this proves to foreshadow a similar outcome on the official print,” DailyFX head strategist Ilya Spivak says.