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Bunker supplier Brightoil purchased up to 170,000 tonnes of fixed swap contracts and 40,000 tonnes of physical cargoes yesterday, according to industry sources.

The Hong Kong-listed firm continued its latest buying spree yesterday - a trend which began at the start of this month.

Brightoil is reported to have bought two 20,000-tonne 180-cst cargoes from oil major BP, at a premium of $3.75 and $4.90 per tonne tonne to Singapore spot quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. Both are scheduled for loading on June 18-22.

Elsewhere, buying of the front-month June contract has been less active, with the market's attention focused on the Q3/Q4 spread, similar to last week.

Leading Asia fuel oil player Petrochina purchased a low-density fuel oil cargo from Indian refiner Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemical Ltd. - its first cargo from an Indian refiner in over 5 years.

The 80,00-tonne 380-centistoke (cst) parcel, which is scheduled for loading from New Mangalore on June 21-23, is reported to have been sold at a premium of $2.50-$3.00 a tonne to Singapore spot quotes, FOB - the highest since MRPL sold a cargo for lifting in early-May.

Meanwhile, a low-viscosity fuel oil cargo offered by Saudi Aramco is understood to have been snapped up within a day of being offered. The deal price for the prompt end-May lot has not been revealed.

So far approximately 2.7 million tonnes of Western inflows have been booked for June, down from 3.2-3.3 million for this month.

Onshore stocks of residues in Singapore rose to a three-week high of 22.5 million barrels for the week ending April 18. Inventories have been above 20 million barrels for seven consecutive weeks.