According to Reuters article published on January 4, 2023, Kuwait has issued a tender offering three cargoes of low-sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) from its Al Zour refinery, ramping up volumes for January compared with previous months, industry sources said on Wednesday.
An increase in supplies from Al Zour is expected to weigh on Asia's fuel oil market as the refinery gradually steps up production.
The refinery is offering three 100,000-tonne cargoes of 0.5% LSFO in a tender that closes on Wednesday.
The first cargo for this tender is scheduled to load between Jan. 18 to 19, while loading dates for the second and third cargoes are to be scheduled later.
This is the refinery's fifth LSFO tender from Al Zour so far, after it offered its first tender in November.
Al Zour will be the largest integrated refinery and petrochemicals plant in Kuwait, and is poised to be a major supplier for the global LSFO market once it ramps up fully into the rest of 2023.
Once fully operational, the refinery will export between 400,000 and 500,000 tonnes of VLSFO per month, meeting 8% to 10% of Asia's demand if the supplies flow East, according to industry sources and Reuters calculations.
