January 26, 2018 [S&P Global] - BP Singapore has given up its tank storage lease for fuel oil at Universal Terminal in Singapore, of around 300,000-340,000 cu m, said market sources Wednesday.
The lease had expired at the end of December and had not been renewed, they added. Prior to this exit, BP had fuel oil tank storage at Tankstore as well but had also exited that some years back, leaving them with no landed storage positions now, market sources said.
The only known storage at this point is a floating storage unit, the VLCC CS Development, sources added.
This development comes amid BP’s placement at seventh place for the top bunker fuel supplier list by volume for 2017, according to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.
In 2016, BP placed fifth on the same list, and in 2015, it placed second — in comparison from when it used to dominate as the top supplier from 2002-2014, according to MPA data.
In addition, there have been some changes on the personnel front, with one fuel oil cargo trader moving across from BP Singapore to the BP Sinopec Marine Fuels joint venture and several more bunker fuel traders expected to make the same move in the next few months, said trade sources. The joint venture came about in May 2015, S&P Global Platts reported previously.
Persistent weak sentiment in the fuel oil market has seen a slow but steady exodus from fuel oil tank storage in Singapore over the last few months, with many landed tank farms seeing more trading companies letting their leases expire, said market sources.
And there are more exits to come, they added.
“There are many empty tanks right now across the farms, including Malaysian ones included in the Strait of Malacca region,” said a trader.
Tank storage rates for fuel oil have also fallen to a low of S$3.90/cu m ($2.96) to S$5.75/cu m, a level not seen since the early 2000s when rates were around S$3.25-S$3.50/cu m, traders added.
The Singapore landed storage market for fuel oil used to command up to S$8.50/cu m maybe five years’ back, so it has been a drastic drop since then, they added.
“There is probably almost 1 million mt of fuel oil tank storage that is available now and this is likely to increase,” said a trader.
While some of this excess are poised to be leased out to new leaseholders, others are expected to remain empty, depending on market conditions or how low tank rates will go, market sources said.
This will no doubt have an impact on the weekly inventory volumes reported by International Enterprise Singapore, which saw 19.999 million barrels of residues for the week of January 11-17, and 19.66 million barrels for the week prior — the lowest levels seen since June 1-7 last year, IE data showed.
BP Singapore did not immediately respond to Platts’ request for comment, while Universal Terminal could not be immediately reached for comment.
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