SINGAPORE - Singapore residual fuel oil inventories were 1% lower in the week to April 28, down from a near five-month high in the week before as weekly net import volumes moderated, official data showed on Thursday.

Onshore fuel oil stocks climbed by 254,000 barrels, or about 40,000 tonnes, to 24.56 million barrels, or 3.87 million tonnes, Enterprise Singapore data showed. O/SING1

Compared with last year, Singapore's residual fuel stocks were 11% higher.

A surge in arbitrage flows into the Singapore hub in March and April helped lift fuel oil stocks away from a near 1-1/2-year low in February. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2KO0QI

Declines in weekly fuel oil stocks, however, were limited by a drop in Singapore exports which fell to a near 2 month low of 189,000 tonnes.

Singapore on average exported 300,000 tonnes of fuel oil a week so far this year.

Still, residual fuel net imports fell 25% in the week to Wednesday to a three-week low of 718,000 tonnes. Weekly figures, however, are volatile.

Weekly Singapore fuel oil net imports have averaged 826,000 tonnes in 2021 and 666,000 tonnes in 2020, the data showed.

The largest net imports were from Malaysia, at 234,000 tonnes, followed by the United States with 222,000 tonnes, the United Arab Emirates with 147,000 tonnes and Russia with 113,000 tonnes.

Weekly Singapore imports from the U.S. were at a more than two-year high.

Singapore's top fuel oil net exports destinations were Bangladesh at 78,000 tonnes, Hong Kong at 45,000 tonnes and the Philippines at 8,000 tonnes.

April 28, Fuel oil (in Total Imports Total Exports Net Imports tonnes) AUSTRALIA 13,991 0 13,991 BANGLADESH 102 78,092 -77,990 BRAZIL 11,135 0 11,135 BRUNEI 1 0 1 CANADA 1 0 1 CHINA 1 0 1 DOMINICAN REP 1 0 1 EGYPT 1 0 1 HONG KONG 5 45,007 -45,002 INDIA 0 440 -440 INDONESIA 5,922 3,248 2,674 JAPAN 45,761 0 45,761 JORDAN 1 0 1 KOREA, REP OF 7 0 7 MALAYSIA 286,635 53,736 232,899 NEW ZEALAND 0 0 0 PANAMA 1 0 1 PHILIPPINES 0 8,495 -8,495 RUSSIA 112,501 0 112,501 TAIWAN 56,114 0 56,114 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 147,244 0 147,244 UNITED KINGDOM 1 0 1 UNITED STATES 222,046 0 222,046 VIETNAM 5,997 0 5,997 TOTAL 907,468 189,018 718,450

(Reporting by Roslan Khasawneh; Editing by Rashmi Aich) ((roslan.khasawneh@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: roslan.khasawneh.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))