14OCT2019 - NEWS - Fujairah heavy distillates exports climbed to record

The bunkering hub of Fujairah on the eastern coast of the UAE exported a record volume of marine fuels and other heavy distillates in September, according to cargo tracking data from Kpler.

Exports rose to 467,000 b/d of heavy distillates last month, the highest since Kpler began following the data three years ago, the company told S&P Global Platts. Shipments were up from 145,000 b/d in September 2018 and 256,000 b/d in August 2019.

New shipping rules taking effect in January require shippers to use fuel with no more than 0.5% of sulfur, compared to the 3.5% content currently allowed.

Fujairah is trying to compete with other bunkering and oil storage hubs like Singapore, the world’s biggest, and Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp, the huge oil refining and distillate storage complex spanning the Netherlands and Belgium. Uniper, which owns one of the refineries at Fujairah, sold 152,000 mt of low sulfur fuel oil in May, at the time the largest in history, for shipment to Singapore.