Singapore oil inventories head down after brief weekly rally

Middle distillates stocks at three-week low

Middle distillates stocks, which typically include diesel and jet fuel, slipped for the first time in nearly a month, but remained above eight million barrels.

However, net exports of both fuels were softer week-on-week. Diesel and gasoil net exports fell by around 10 per cent, while net exports of jet fuel and kerosene fell 60 per cent over the same period.

Imports of diesel and gasoil were mainly from India, South Korea and Thailand, while exports went to regional destinations such as Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand.

Traders were expecting fewer incoming cargoes from India soon, given the wider east-west price spread in the past week - signalling better seller margins to west of Suez markets.

As for jet fuel and kerosene imports, they were mostly from China and South Korea for the week.

(Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh, Mohi Narayan, Trixie Yap; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)