Oil product inventories at Fujairah increased by 6.2% in the week to 19 October, ending a run of three weekly declines as light distillates rebounded from a record low. Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide, carrying a Platts report, said total stocks reached 7.247 million barrels, citing Fujairah Oil Industry Zone (FOIZ) figures released on 21 October.
The recovery left overall inventories 65% below their level on 23 February, before the start of the Iran war, according to the report. Disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz continued. Fujairah sits on the UAE’s east coast outside the strait, and the latest weekly increase reversed only part of the decline in stocks recorded since the conflict began.
Light distillates, which include gasoline and naphtha, accounted for the strongest weekly movement. Inventories climbed 72% to 1.304 million barrels, compared with the previous week’s record low of 760,000 barrels. The report described the increase as the largest in the FOIZ data series supplied to S&P Global Energy since 2017. Despite that rebound, light distillate holdings were still 87% lower than when the war began, the steepest decline among the three product groups reported.
Heavy distillate stocks, covering products used in marine bunkering and power generation, rose 12% to 3.682 million barrels, their highest level in two weeks. Middle distillates moved in the opposite direction, falling 18% to 2.261 million barrels after reaching a post-war-start high a week earlier. Since the conflict began, heavy distillate inventories had fallen 53%, while middle distillate stocks were down 23%.
Separately, Platts assessed Fujairah-delivered marine fuel containing 0.5% sulphur at $982 per metric tonne on 20 October, its highest assessment since 13 October. Delivered 380 CST high-sulphur fuel was assessed at $739 per metric tonne, its lowest since the same date. The two bunker fuel assessments therefore reached contrasting price milestones alongside the reported rise in heavy distillate stocks.