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.