Singapore fuel oil trade volume highest in at least 5 years: Traders

SINGAPORE - The daily volume fuel oil trades concluded during the Asia's pricing process hit its highest in at least five years on Tuesday, traders said.

A total of 620,000 tonnes traded on Tuesday, of which 560,000 tonnes were 380-centistoke grade - nearly a third of the monthly volume traded in May over the price assessment process facilitated by Platts, a unit at of McGraw Hill Financial.

"I believe we may have the record today," said a Singapore-based trader, referring to the total daily trade volume of both the 180-cst and 380-cst grades.

Another trader confirmed that the largest daily volume traded he had seen in his career of more than five years was around 400,000 tonnes in June 2013.

Platts could not immediately confirm if Tuesday's volume was the highest ever.

Traders are expecting physical cargo trade for the 380-cst grade to easily top 3 million tonnes in June, based on open interest in derivatives for the oil product.

The last time the monthly trade volume exceed the 3 million tonne mark was in October 2013, when it hit 3.2 million tonnes.

The total open interest for the June 380-cst and 180-cst grades stand at 12.7 million tonnes and 4 million tonnes as at May 29, data from Intercontinental Exchange and Chicago Mercantile Exchanged showed.

The breakdown of the trades are as follows: 380-cst (T) 180-cst (T) Total (T)

BUYERS

Glencore 200,000 20,000 220,000 BP 160,000 40,000 200,000 PetroChina 180,000 0 180,000 Mercuria 20,000 0 20,000

SELLERS

Lukoil 160,000 0 160,000 Gunvor 80,000 0 80,000 Hin Leong 40,000 0 40,000 Total 80,000 0 80,000 Vitol 40,000 0 40,000 SK Energy 40,000 0 40,000 Castleton 40,000 0 40,000 Cargill 20,000 0 20,000 Chevron 20,000 0 20,000 Mitsui 0 20,000 20,000 KIB Energy 0 20,000 20,000 Phillips 20,000 20,000 66 Repsol 20,000 0 20,000 Shell 0 20,000 20,000