Asia/Pacific News
Singapore Sees Bunker Viscosity Increase Since Start of Ukraine War
Singapore's bunker market has seen a marked increase in the average viscosity of its fuels since the outbreak of war in Ukraine last year.
The Singapore bunker market's average VLSFO viscosity was 151.89 CST in the first quarter of this year, up from 121.35 CST a year earlier, according to the latest data from the MPA. The Q1 figure was the highest seen since the MPA started publishing the data in Q4 2021.
Average Q1 HSFO viscosity was 340.77 CST, up from 322.23 CST a year earlier.
Density has declined slightly at the same time. Singapore's average Q1 VLSFO density was 944.9 kg/m3, down from 944.2 kg/m3 a year earlier, while Q1 HSFO density slipped to 979.367 kg/m3 from 981.933 kg/m3 a year earlier.
The changes may be as a result of shifting global fuel oil tradeflows after the outbreak of war. More heavy Russian fuel oil -- as well as fuel oil produced from heavier Russian crude blends -- have ended up in the Asia-Pacific region after Europe started to phase out Russian oil imports.
Global data for the same period from testing agency Verifuel show less of an increase in viscosity. Verifuel saw average global Q1 VLSFO viscosity at 152 CST, up from 142 CST a year earlier, while average density fell to 942 kg/m3 in Q1 from 945.2 kg/m3 a year earlier.
