Rising European Heating Fuel Demand Draws Korean Oil
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Rising heating oil demand in Europe amid seasonal refinery maintenance has attracted supplies from as far as Japan and South Korea and pushed the benchmark London futures market into so-called backwardation.
Vitol Group, the world’s largest independent oil trader, hired one of four tankers to ship 90,000 metric tons of heating oil from South Korea to Europe, according to a Sept. 17 report from Interocean Shipping, a New Delhi-based ship broker. Consumers in Germany, the region’s biggest market for the fuel, bought twice as much of the fuel in August as the same month a year ago. A total of 485,000 tons were provisionally booked for shipment from East Asia, shipping reports show this week.