Stocks of oil products in Fujairah rebound

FUJAIRAH: The stockpiles of oil products at the Port of Fujairah rebounded to a three-week high, with refinery outages in the Middle East helping to boost light distillates to an eight-month high.

Total inventory was 23.180 million barrels on Feb. 22, up 11 per cent from a week earlier and the highest since Feb. 1, according to Fujairah Oil Industry Zone (FOIZ) data, released on Feb. 24 exclusively to S&P Global Plats. It was the biggest weekly gain since Dec. 7 ater hiting a 2021 low a week earlier.

Light distillates, such as gasoline and naphtha stocks, stood at 8.095 million barrels as of Feb. 22, up 12 per cent from a week earlier and the highest since June 22.

The buildup in light distillate stocks comes amid a string of refinery outages in the Middle East. The gasoline plaformer unit at Bahrain’s 267,000 b/d Sitra refinery has been shut for “economic reasons”, while the reformer unit at Saudi Aramco’s 440,000 b/d Satorp refinery is undergoing maintenance works, Plats previously reported. Refineries planning outages oten boost shipments beforehand to storage sites to meet demand there and then send to other areas.

Robust demand from Africa has also atracted gasoline barrels to the Middle East, with tankers typically stopping by the Middle East before moving on to other African destinations.

At the same time, domestic demand for gasoline in the UAE has dipped, with driving activity slipping to around 200 per cent above baseline levels, down from the 400 per cent peak recorded in January, according to Apple mobility data.