The first fuel oil cargo from Mexico has just arrived in Asia, in a first such shipment in nine months, as high Asian prices draw supplies from other regions amid the shock supply loss from the Middle East.
The cargo, on the Orion tanker, has arrived in Singapore, and more cargoes from Mexico are likely to follow amid favorable arbitrage economics and sufficient supply in the Americas, industry sources told Reuters.
The tanker laden with about 1 million barrels of Mexican high-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) departed from the Salina Cruz refinery on the Pacific coast and has now reached Singapore, per ship-tracking data from Kpler and traders cited by Reuters.
Asia, especially the Singapore bunkering and trading hub, has seen fuel inventories deplete in recent weeks as supply from the Middle East dried up with the Strait of Hormuz closed.
Inventories of oil products in Singapore have dropped to the lowest level in nearly ten months, according to official data. Onshore oil product inventories stood at 44.83 million barrels in the week to May 6, data from government agency Enterprise Singapore showed. This was the lowest level of oil product stocks at the key Asian trading and bunkering hub since the end of July 2025.
Due to increased supply from Venezuela to the U.S. Gulf Coast, Mexican fuel oil sellers are turning to the Asian market where prices are high enough to support shipments to Asia, instead of the Caribbean and the U.S., which are the typical buyers of Mexico’s fuel oil.
More Mexican supply could arrive in Asia soon, as the trading arm of Mexico’s state oil giant Pemex is reportedly offering at least one other HSFO cargo for June delivery via a tender, a Singapore-based trader told Reuters.
This is good news for Asia, which is scrambling for crude and fuel oil amid the massive supply disruption in the Middle East.
By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com
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