Fuel Oil Demand News

Global demand for marine fuels is expected to fall by up to 17% due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on world trade, setting the stage for more consolidation among bunker suppliers, an industry executive told a conference on Wednesday.Banks scaled back on their commodities trade finance after the coronavirus crisis led to defaults by some trading houses and exposed a series of frauds, leaving small and medium-sized firms most exposed.Unni Einemo, director of the International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA), said firms were contending with low demand, low margins, ample supplies, i

Exxon Mobil Corp expects high-sulfur fuel oil demand to fall 25 percent by 2025, as a new set of emission regulations from the International Maritime Organization capping sulfur content in shipping fuel at 0.5% kicks in in 2020, a top-level official at the U.S. oil and gas company said on Monday.The International Energy Agency has forecast high-sulfur fuel oil demand to fall 60 percent next year, while marine gas oil demand to more than double.Exxon's forecast comes as its refining business is struggling to find enough heavy crude to make fuel oil and other distillates, in the face of U.S.

Royal Dutch Shell has struck a deal with Dutch tank terminal firm HES International to partially restart a German oil refinery mothballed since 2011 in response to new restrictions on marine fuels, two trading sources told Reuters.A new cap set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) that will cut the sulfur content in shipping fuel to 0.5 percent from 3.5 percent from next year is set to be one of the biggest fundamental events to hit oil markets in years.HES Wilhelmshaven Tank Terminal is in the process of reinstalling the vacuum distillation unit (VDU) at Wilhelmshaven to produce low-sulfur bunker fuels ahead of the implementation of the IMO rules…

High-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO), essentially the leftovers of an oil refiner's output, will still flow from refineries around the world even after new rules start up in 2020 curtailing its use in the global shipping fleet, a Reuters survey showed.Sixty percent of the 33 refineries contacted by Reuters in a global survey will still produce HSFO in 2020 although the supply will tighten as 70 percent of these refiners plan to reduce their output.Starting that year, ships will have to use marine fuel…

Global shipping fleet must cut sulfur emissions by 2020. Wartsila received record orders for sulfur scrubbers last year. Shipping industry hopes that so-called sulfur scrubbers are a quick-fix solution to compliance with drastic emissions reduction demanded by 2020 are somewhat misguided, one of the world's biggest manufacturers of the equipment told Reuters. The International Maritime Organization's (IMO) cut to the amount of sulfur the world's fleet can emit will have massive implications for shippers, oil refiners and even crude oil producers.

The shipping industry and oil refineries are not doing enough to prepare for new rules cutting the amount of sulfur that vessels can emit from 2020, according to the head of the International Energy Agency's (IEA) oil industry and market division.The new rules drastically cut the amount of sulfur that the world's ships can emit, from 3.5 percent currently to just 0.5 percent. Ships that install "scrubbers" that remove sulfur as the fuel is burned can continue to use higher sulfur fuels…

Asia's fuel oil crack for benchmark 180-centistroke rebounded to a discount of $6.79 a barrel on Wednesday, gaining as bunker prices firmed on the possibility of reduced arbitrage volumes from the West next month even as the market remained quiet, traders said. The spread for the benchmark also remained tight, holding around a four-month high, at a discount of $2.75 - a further indication of possible lower arbitrage volumes, traders said. "We don't see much arbitrage cargo - somewhere in the low 3s (million tonnes) in December," said one Singapore trader. Other traders have estimated volumes could hit 4 million tonnes, similar to November's level. "Bunker prices have picked up and fundamentals kicked in," the trader said.

Demand for marine fuel in Singapore, the world's largest bunkering hub, is beginning to take a hit as high flat prices kept buyers on the sidelines, traders said. Reuters data showed. "This week's demand is not as good as previous weeks. Flat price wise, anything below $600 a tonne should be able to attract buyers back," said a Singapore-based trader. Bunker prices have hovered above the $600-a-tonne mark since last Wednesday, after being mired below the level for more than a month since mid-March. The weakening end-user demand has also squeezed the intermonth spread, which refers to the price spreads between June and July swaps, of benchmark 380-cst, traders said. The 380-cst intermonth spread stood at $2.50 a tonne to Singapore spot quotes, down 50 cents from Monday, Reuters data showed.

Average crude oil prices for July were little changed from June. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) spot average for July was $30.75 per barrel compared to $30.66 in June. EIA’s Outlook is for prices to remain firm through the rest of 2003, or at least until autumn, when OECD oil inventories may rebuild above observed 5-year lows. Once inventories have been rebuilt, WTI oil prices may slide gradually to $26 per barrel during 2004, as Iraqi oil exports return to near pre-war levels. U.S.