Bunker prices have seen small gains across East of Suez ports in the past day, and Typhoon Chanthu has also suspended bunkering in South Korea and Japan.
Changes on the day to 16.00 SGT (08.00 GMT) today:
- VLSFO prices up in Fujairah and Zhoushan ($4/mt) and Singapore ($1/mt)
- LSMGO prices up in Fujairah ($5/mt) and Singapore ($4/mt), and down in Zhoushan ($19/mt)
- HSFO380 prices up in Fujairah ($1/mt), and down in Zhoushan and Singapore ($2/mt)
Bunker operations remain suspended in Zhoushan and Shanghai for another day, as Typhoon Chanthu lingers in the region with strong winds. The weather is expected to calm towards the end of the week, with operations potentially resuming on Friday.
HSFO380 supply remains tight in Zhoushan, with two out of five HSFO380 suppliers having small quantities of 400-700 mt available. VLSFO and LSMGO are in good supply in the Chinese port.
Zhoushan’s VLSFO price has increased by $4/mt on the day, while Singapore’s price has seen a smaller $1/mt gain. As a result, Zhoushan has widened its premium over Singapore to $4/mt.
Typhoon Chanthu has also suspended bunker supply in South Korea’s southern ports of Busan and Yeosu, and on Japan’s western coast. Barge availability was already tight in Japan’s western ports, and the most recent supply suspension is expected to add to the delivery backlog.
Brent
Front-month ICE Brent is broadly steady on the day, edging up by $0.20/bbl to $74.30/bbl at 16.00 SGT (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.
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.