SINGAPORE, July 18 (Reuters) - Singapore's middle distillates stockpiles ballooned week on week, gaining by more than 30% as a surge of jet fuel/kerosene total imports - mainly from India - offset gains in diesel/gasoil net exports, data showed on Thursday.
Inventories of diesel/gasoil and jet fuel/kerosene at oil storage hub Singapore climbed to 11.145 million barrels for the week ended July 17, compared with 8.454 million barrels the previous week.
The city-state was a net importer of jet fuel/kerosene for the week, given the arrival of at least 60,000 metric tons of the fuel from India and firm import volumes from China.
This is the first time in more than a year that India cargoes have arrived into Singapore, the data showed.
Volumes have mostly been sporadic as it is usually more lucrative for India's refiners to sell off their spot cargoes into the west of Suez markets, two trade sources said, adding that traders will only consider shipping it here if freight costs are better or there is extra regional distribution demand.
This arrival cargo was likely from Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, Kpler and LSEG shiptracking data showed. (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by David Goodman and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
