ENOC reduces Asia fuel oil market presence

Dubai-based Emirates National Oil Co. (ENOC) has reduced its presence in the Asia fuel oil market, reducing its marine fuel supply volumes in Singapore by about half, in the face of a difficult trading environment, industry sources said. Its fuel oil trading manager has also resigned, while ENOC has shut its bunker operations in the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah earlier, in a market that has seen most players struggling with poor trading margins. ENOC, a majority stakeholder in Singapore’s Horizon Terminals, halved its storage capacity for fuel oil to about 60,000 cubic meters (cu m) at the start of the month. Chinas Brightoil Petroleum took over the half that it gave up. When ENOC first entered the Asian fuel oil market in 2006, it had around 200,000 cu m of capacity, of which about 90,000 cu m were sub-leased two years later and was then returned to the storage owner earlier this year. (September 16, 2010)