FUJAIRAH DATA: Oil product stocks fall on 11% slide in heavy distillates

Dubai — Oil product stockpiles at Fujairah port on the UAE's east coast, outside the Strait of Hormuz, fell to a two-week low as fuel oil for marine bunkers and power generation dropped to the lowest in almost two years.

Stockpiles as of Nov. 23 stood at 20.124 million barrels, down 1.5% from a week earlier, according to data released Nov. 25 by the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone. Heavy distillates, which includes marine bunkers and fuel oil, dropped 11% to 7.271 million barrels, the lowest since Dec. 31, 2018, the data provided exclusively to S&P Global Platts showed.

Also over the week to Nov. 23, middle distillates such as jet fuel and diesel climbed 3% to 6.161 million barrels, a record high.

Platts has been compiling the Fujairah inventory data since January 2017.

Heavy distillate stockpiles have dropped for five weeks in a row, leaving reduced supplies for export. In the week started Nov. 16, only 556,500 barrels of fuel oil headed out of Fujairah -- all to Reunion and Mauritius -- the lowest weekly total since the week started Oct. 19, according to data intelligence firm Kpler.

At the same time, some 360,000 barrels of diesel from Saudi Arabia was headed for Fujairah in the week started Nov. 16, the first diesel shipment from Saudi Arabia to Fujairah since July 20. In the week started Nov. 9, Saudi Arabia also shipped 120,000 barrels of jet fuel to Fujairah, the first such shipment since the June 29 week, according to Kpler.

Light distillate stocks stood at 6.692 million barrels on Nov. 23, up 6% from a week earlier, and a 10-week high.