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Asia Fuel Oil-Edges down on crude, buyers cautious

SINGAPORE: Fuel oil prices in Singapore edged down in thin trading on Wednesday as buyers retreated in the face of mixed fundamentals and a weaker paper market.

Traders said the market was balanced with no clear factors emerging to push prices one way or the other.

"China is still out and there's not much Middle East cargoes coming this way, so this market will just follow crude for the time being," a trader said.

Traders said the last Middle East cargo seen on offer for February loading was heard sold at a premium of about $2.00 per tonne on a free-on-board Bahrain basis.

These cargoes, including the additional material sold earlier out of Kuwait and Ras Tanura, have already been placed in the market, they said.

Among the fresh outlets emerging in Asia was India's purchase of a total of 45,000 tonnes of medium and high sulphur fuel oil last week through a tender.

Thailand's tender to buy a 2.0-percent sulphur cargo for first half March delivery had given the market a much needed boost but the larger than expected cargoes offered for sale from the Philippines has put a dampener on sentiment.

Petron had offered to sell through a tender 440,000 barrels of high sulphur fuel oil earlier on Wednesday.

In the cash market, buyers pulled back their bids slightly with the best number at $136.00 per tonne compared with the trade done on Tuesday at $137.00.

The lower bid, however, was in line with the crude-induced loss seen in the swaps market.-Reuters