Inventories of gasoil/diesel and jet fuel/kerosene at key oil storage hub Singapore were at 9.547 million barrels as of Feb. 14, up by more than 2 million barrels from the week before, the data from Enterprise Singapore showed. [O/SING1]

Net exports of diesel/gasoil slipped by almost 54% week on week as total imports rose by more than five times from last week.

Arrivals from India, Qatar and Taiwan were the main contributors.

These cargoes from India and the Middle East were earlier expected given the volatile arbitrage window between East and west West, one trade source said.

However this trend may not sustain given that the arbitrage window to the West has widened, analysts say.

"Calculations taking into consideration Cape routing notably suggest that WCI (and AG) arb routes now target Northwest Europe rather than Singapore," Sparta Commodities' analyst James Noel-Beswick, said.

Regional cargoes from South Korea and China however will likely still be routed to Singapore. "Continued high imports into Singapore are anticipated, particularly as regional freight rates show signs of slight decline in the near term," he added.

The gain in total diesel/gasoil exports for the week did offset some increments in total imports, with volumes heading to Indonesia and Malaysia still robust due to lower refinery runs from planned maintenance activities.

Russia-origin cargoes emerged for the third straight week, adding on to the inventory build-up.

Russia loaded an unprecedented high volume of diesel/gasoil to Singapore in the past five years, LSEG shiptracking data showed.

Most of these should be high-sulphur diesel or marine diesel, one source said.

Jet fuel/kerosene-wise, net exports also slipped by around 15%, mirroring the declines in total exports by the same margin.

Most of these volumes were headed to Bangladesh and New Zealand for the week.

(1 ton = around 7.45 barrels for gasoil)

(1 ton = around 7.88 barrels for jet fuel/kerosene)

(Reporting by Trixie Yap; additional reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

By Trixie Yap