Oil is flowing, APPEC is told. File Image / Pixabay

• No shortage of bunkers at major hubs today, unlike March and April, APPEC panel told
• Singapore VLSFO prices have more than doubled since January 1, Ship & Bunker data shows
• Fujairah bunkering activity back to around 40% of its pre-war level; Singapore steady throughout
• Between 10 and 15 vessels a day still transit the Omani side of the strait, Emarat Maritime says

The marine fuel supply squeeze triggered by the war around the Strait of Hormuz has eased, with the market adjusting to prolonged disruption, industry sources told the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC) on Thursday, according to a Reuters report.

"We do not see any problems with sourcing bunkers today and putting them on board," said Rishi Nyati, managing director of Emarat Maritime, on a panel at the conference.

According to Nyati, the major shipping hubs are no longer short of marine fuel or bunkers the way they were in March and April, even though bunker prices have remained elevated.

Ship & Bunker data for Singapore, the world's largest bunkering hub, shows outright VLSFO prices climbing from $433.50/mt on January 1 to $878.50/mt on Friday, an increase of more than 100%.

Since the US and Israel struck Iran in late February, prices have swung sharply, climbing through March before pulling back from their peaks.

Max Tay, Asia heavy product trading manager at Repsol, said on the same panel that disruption out of the strait persists, but that alternative sources of supply remain available.

According to Tay, the harder problem now is finding enough of the right blending stocks to produce marine fuel that meets individual buyers' and markets' specifications.

By his estimate, the Fujairah refuelling hub in the United Arab Emirates is also now running at around 40% of its pre-war bunkering activity.

Ironaically, in early February prior to the conflict’s start, a key concern for 2026 was persistently weak VLSFO prices and margin pressure.

But by April, IBIA's outgoing and incoming chairmen were already cautioning that price reactions to the conflict risked being overstated, with outgoing chairman Constantinos Capetanakis calling it "serious profiteering" rather than genuine supply tightness.

Yet Mercuria warned in June that regional stock-outs and hub outages were still possible within months. 

None of this, it should be noted, has impacted Singapore's own bunker sales over the first seven months of 2026: they are up more than 3% on the same period last year, at 32.58 million mt.

That comparison period, 2025, was itself a record year for the port.

Even the worst of the squeeze has passed, sustained demand at that pace could test how much slack the market really has.

Nyati told the panel at APPEC that despite the tensions, oil is still moving through the strait, with between 10 and 15 cargo vessel transits a day in both directions through the Omani corridor on the southern side.

"Hormuz is not closed," Nyati said. 

"There's oil flowing."