Hengyi Steps Up Fuel Oil Exports from Brunei After Refinery Fire

China's Hengyi has increased fuel oil exports from its Brunei refinery this month and has delayed loadings of other refined products following a fire at the plant in late May, according to several trade sources and ship-tracking data.

The delivery changes suggest Hengyi is unable to process as much fuel oil as normal into other products such as naphtha and diesel, evidence that operations at its 160,000 barrels per day Pulau Muara Besar complex were affected by the fire.

The company said on May 30 a fire occurred in Zone 2 of its petrochemical plant at the complex but did not say if operations had been impacted.

Hengyi did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday on the changes in deliveries of gasoil and fuel oil.

One fuel oil cargo from the refiner totalling 34,000 metric tons is scheduled to depart from Brunei on Tuesday on the vessel Sloman Thetis, which is expected to arrive at Singapore later this week, data from shipping analytics firm Kpler showed.

Additionally, a cargo of around 35,000 tons of either vacuum gasoil or fuel oil is also scheduled to load on the Asphalt Sonata on June 15, with the vessel likely chartered by Shell, two Singapore-based trade sources said.

Hengyi has also notified a few buyers of its gasoil cargoes in June that loadings will be delayed by around two weeks due to production issues, two Singapore-based trade sources said.

The refiner has exported fuel oil sporadically from Brunei before, though the parcels have always been in smaller volumes of less than 20,000 tons.

It was not immediately clear if more fuel oil exports are planned for the rest of June.

Meanwhile, oil tanker Serene Sea carrying Malaysian crude had been scheduled to arrive at the refinery on June 6 but is still waiting to discharge, data from Kpler and LSEG showed.

(Reuters - Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh and Trixie Yap; Editing by Florence Tan and Sonali Paul)