Singapore oil product exports may fall

Singapore oil product exports may fall

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore's oil product exports are likely to
drop by 10-to-15 percent in the second half of the decade as
domestic consumption rises, according to an oil trade
publication.

The Singapore Oil Report attributed the decline in exports to
850,000 barrels per day (bpd) to the start up of new
petrochemical plants and higher domestic consumption of petroleum
products.

"Total exports, including estimated sales to Indonesia, could
occasionally exceed one million bpd in the next two years from
the current level of 950,000 bpd but will slide rapidly on higher
domestic demand for naphtha, jet fuel and fuel oil from 1996,"
the report said over the weekend.

Singapore was likely to be a net naphtha importer when the
last of its three petrochemical complexes begin operating from
1997, the report said.

It said the addition of at least 57,000 bpd in reforming
capacity to produce gasoline would also affect production of
naphtha, a feedstock for producing petrochemicals.

Naphtha production is expected to peak at 150,000 bpd
following modest expansion in base refining capacity before
dropping by 57,000 bpd to equal the new reforming capacity coming
on stream.

With air traffic through Changi airport expected to continue
growing at a robust rate, jet fuel demand was seen rising at six-
to-seven percent annually, the report said.

Bonded sales of fuel to planes leaving Singapore, which was
estimated to be 50,000 bpd last year, could rise to 65,000-to-
70,000 bpd by 1998, it said.