SINGAPORE: Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has sold 55,000 tonnes of low-viscosity fuel oil for end-April loading at wider discounts, industry sources said on Tuesday.
The state-owned refiner sold a 25,000 tonnes parcel of 180-centistoke (cst) cargo at a discount of $11 a tonne to the Singapore benchmark, traders said.
IOC sold a larger cargo of about 30,000 tonnes to PetroChina at a discount of $10 to the Singapore benchmark. The cargo was scheduled to load from Kandla.
The last sale of an IOC fuel oil cargo of similar specifications was done at a discount of between $5 to $6 a tonne earlier this month, Reuters data showed.
The cargoes, which are loading from West Coast India, may be shipped into the Fujairah marine fuels market where it is likely to be used for blending.
The Fujairah market has been facing a short-term supply shortage, traders based at the United Arab Emirates port said.
"The market is tight through the end of the month and we have seen the premiums for bunkers go up over the past two weeks," a Fujairah-based trader said.
"We see this tightness lasting through the end of the month, after that we should see prices ease up a bit, but having said that with the flat price down significantly that will probably drum up more buying interest."
Benchmark Fujairah bunker prices settled at around $611 on Friday, down more than $10 from Friday's Middle East close. (Reuters)
