(Argus, 24.Sep.2019) — Petrobras has begun stockpiling low-sulphur fuel oil in Malaysia and Singapore as the 1 January start date approaches for new global marine fuel sulphur regulations.
Petrobras is not a registered bunker supplier in Singapore, the biggest bunkering port in the world, but its trading office in Singapore sells the residual fuel oil to local registered suppliers. Malaysia serves as a storage and transshipment hub for resid before it is re-exported, typically to Singapore and China. Brazil’s combined fuel oil exports to Singapore and Malaysia in the first eight months of 2019 rose by 19pc to 47,247 b/d, compared with 39,723 b/d during the same period in 2018, according to data from oil analytics firm Vortexa.
Petrobras’ typical fuel oil production has 0.6-0.8pc sulphur content, which the company could easily blend down to meet the 0.5pc sulphur limit. The company announced that beginning on 1 October it will reduce the sulphur content of the fuel oil it sells for bunkering in Brazil to 0.5pc in preparation for the new rules.
Petrobras’ Brazilian residual fuel oil production declined by 7pc to 182,340 b/d in the first seven months of the year, compared with 194,348 b/d during the same period in 2018, according to the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP). Petrobras’ annual Brazilian refineries residual fuel oil production dropped to its lowest level in the last 19 years in 2018 to 184,668 b/d. Output declined because of refinery upgrades and lower refinery utilization rates.
Five of Petrobras’ refineries accounted for 78pc of the company’s residual fuel oil output. Rlam refinery, located in Sao Francisco do Conde, on Brazil’s east central coast, alone accounted for 26pc or 46,904 b/d of fuel oil production in January to July. The other top fuel oil producing refineries in the first seven months of 2019 were Reduc: 32,335 b/d, Revap: 27,957 b/d, Rpcc: 21,379 b/d and Replan: 13,330 b/d.
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