February marine bunker fuel sales at the United Arab Emirates’ Fujairah port climbed 10.7% from last year, posting a second month of yearly increases, latest data showed.
Bunker sales rose after refuelling demand strengthened globally following tensions in the Red Sea, which led to several ships diverting course and taking on more fuel when they pass by key bunker hubs like Singapore and Fujairah.
February sales, excluding lubricants, totalled 633,436 cubic metres (about 627,000 metric tons), Fujairah Oil Industry Zone (FOIZ) data published by S&P Global Commodity Insights showed.
However, sales were down 6.1% from January, in line withslower demand seen at other hubs like Singapore.
While Red Sea shipping disruptions should spur ships to refuel more at the hubs, overall uptake eased in February as some ships took more days to return to the hubs to refuel amid longer voyages, market sources said.
Low-sulphur bunker sales of residual fuels and marine gasoils totalled 440,683 cubic metres at Fujairah, down 5.7% from January.
Meanwhile, high-sulphur bunker sales were 6.9% lower from January at 192,753 cubic metres in February, the data showed.
The market share of low-sulphur bunkers was at 70%, while high-sulphur bunkers was at 30%.
Fujairah retained its position as the world’s third-largest bunker hub in 2023, though sales havetrended lower in the past years.
Heightened geopolitical risk in the Middle East have raised risk premiums in the region and resulted in lower bunkering demand in the past year. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Varun H K)