Singapore: Emirates National Oil Co (Enoc) has reduced its presence in the Asia fuel oil market, cutting its marine fuel supply volumes in Singapore by about half, in the face of a difficult trading environment, industry sources said yesterday.
Its fuel oil trading manager has also resigned, and the state oil firm shut its bunker operations in the port of Fujairah earlier, in a market that has seen most players struggling with poor trading margins.
"Enoc remains committed to its business and operations in Singapore across all portfolios. As part of its continuous and overall review of business activities, Enoc... balances product portfolios," an Enoc spokesman said.
"The movement of individual staff also does not mean change in existing business activities. Singapore and the larger Asian market will continue to be focus areas for Enoc."
Dubai-based Enoc, a majority stakeholder in Singapore's Horizon Terminals, halved its storage capacity for fuel oil to about 60,000 cubic metres at the start of the month.
China's Brightoil Petroleum took over the half that it gave up.
In July, the firm pulled out of the Fujairah marine fuels market amid falling volumes and after losing an estimated $20 million (Dh73.4 million).
When Enoc first entered the Asian fuel oil market in 2006, it had around 200,000 cubic metres of capacity, of which about 90,000 cubic metres were sub-leased two years later and then returned to the storage owner earlier this year.
"To have only 60,000 cubic metres of tankage in Singapore is very small, and it's quite clear they are scaling down..." a Singapore-based Western trader said.
